RAYEARTH KNIGHTS: SAKURA THE PILLAR
by hypn0s
Summary: The untold tale of one of the most unknown knights comes to light, in time of utter peril she will come to aid, the pillar in which all leans for support, holding the weight of the world on her shoulders, unshaken, impossible to crumble, this is Sakura, this is her story...
1. Prologue

**Hello loyal readers, it is I! hypn0s, I come with you with the next part of the rayearth saga, Sakura's saga, as everyone voted for her to be part of this story.**

**now I have recieved several PM's and reviews stating their worry about this story, after all Card Captor Sakura is not exactly know for its violence, but for its aim to younger audience, so far I have seen only one chapter where violence was predominant, and that was during Yue's and Li's fight.**

**now this story will have violence, hence the T rating, in fact all rayearth stories have and will have the T rating, with that said I also add that this story will surely make more than one blink and ask me what the hell i'm smoking, and if i can some with them, here Sakura will face several trials that will change her, she will still be Sakura, but a Sakura temptered to what's coming ahead, after all, all she has lived up to this point, which means this history takes place after the end of the anime and the two OVA's, will look like a walk in the park to her compared to what's coming, she will cry, she will get angry, betrayed, wounded, this will test her in ways she never expected, she will see the good and evil of men, and the greed of a queen who wants her dead, not to mention the creature that awaits her to lower her guard**

**now without any delay i give you all sakura the Pillar, the prologue, enjoy.**

* * *

**RAYEARTH KNIGHTS: SAKURA THE PILLAR**

**PROLOGUE:**

_The legends of the knights of Crystalia is a well know myth, fable or fact depending on the world told, to some people the knights and Crystalia are just an ill-based myth that has no fundaments, a story of a madman._

_To others the story is a perfect example of the forces of balance, nothing can't hope to coexist in chaos, nothing, Crystalia showing the greatest example, the Rayearth knights, each one balance the other._

_To others however, the story is in fact real, a fact, Crystalia does exists, any theory regarding the creation of the universe and the one of a monstrous Black hole in the middle of the universe is shunned away to those who believe of the existence of Crystalia, a planet of gargantuan dimensions, something a black hole would be unable to swallow, with an even monstrous sun, a set of three moons as big as a gas giant, inside a gigantic solar system that rounds a titanic sun that would set ablaze the mind of those who theorize that a sun of such size would never exist._

_Yet one thing remains the same in all the three sets, no one knows much about the fourth Rayearth._

_Simply know as 'the secret Rayearth' this knight is nothing like the others, simply appearing once in the history of Crystalia, the time when a Queen was corrupted and brought a rule so dark that the guardians were forced to call the Rayearth knights, problem was that the royal line was corrupted as well, so Gaia, the guardian of Earth called forth a fourth knight, a woman, the one who would replace the queen._

_Story states firmly on all three cases that if this event where to occur again, that if a Queen were to grow corrupted and her line was unable to follow the royal line of succession, then a new princess, one selected from a very few handful of women by Gaia herself from the almost infinite choice the universe has to offer would be called, granted the same powers that the queen, stronger than the three knights combined._

_Indeed selecting a new princess is hard, yet Gaia chose once again, she has chosen indeed…_

* * *

**_there, the prologue, now wait a little while i wrap up chapter 1, which will have above all, and on popular demand a 'small' codex that will clear your doubts on some terms that will come up ahead._**

**_be patient._**


	2. 1: Normal days

**_I told you all i would be back, you guys sometimes lose faith in me and my ability to write stories, nah just kidding with you all, here it is, chapter 1 of the story, officially this story will have 8 to nine chapters, non counting prologue and epilogue, it will run in the same time format as the others, meaning that the beggining event of Naruto the Maelstrom, Danny the Tsunami and Ichigo the inferno are occuring at the same time as hers, just to clear some doubts, and will cover all her six months prior to her entrance to Crystalia and the last story, Rayearth knights, still working on a appropiate subtittle._**

**_now read and review, and a cookie to those who can see where i got the inspiration for Sakura's dream sequence._**

* * *

**CHAPTER 1: NORMAL DAYS**

_Then main plaza was filled to the brim with every possible person or human shaped animal possible, but they were behind, separated by a wave of red robed beings with pointy hats, all held their heads low in reverence at the carriage pulled by two six legged horses with golden fur and twice as big as any other horse know._

_Inside the carriage a wrinkled hand waved at the mass of people behind the ones with the red robed ones, the people didn't looked so happy by the appearance of the person inside the carriage, nor the fact that the green armored elves kept a close watch at any troublemaker up in the roofs._

_But that was about to change, a lone female figure, hidden in the shadows waited for the moment, and then she began to move, her small frame fitting more of a kid of roughly twelve years old, dressed in a school uniform that resembled a sailor outfit, white skirt with a black shirt, yellow elbow pads protected her exposed elbows and part of her forearms, what seemed black skin tight shorts under her skirt along with yellow kneepads and white sneakers, her brown hair moved alongside with the wind and her green eyes looked about the gathered crowd, then she moved._

_With every step she took onward and into the crow, the people parted away, recognizing her almost immediately, most of the crowd of villagers by their clothes stared at her left hand, recognizing immediately the glove in it._

_She was not ignored by the guards in the roofs of course, one of the elf guards loaded her rifle and aimed as people parted ways to allow the girl access, the crystalium lens gleaming at the sunlight, but before the elf could do something a shadow fell over her, all she saw after that was red hair and a fist sailing to her face._

_The girl kept advancing, and the crowd kept parting away, two elf guards rushed at her, only to stagger a little and held their necks, pulling a needle like projectile with some purple liquid coated around it, the two guards instantly fell to the ground, unconscious, on the roofs each elf guard fell against what seemed a red and green blur that kept breaking their noses with brutal ease._

_Soon she reached the red robed ones, they broke out of her way so fast that it was nearly comical, or sad considering that they were afraid of her upon laying sights on her, unlike the others who just opened a path to her and didn't show fear._

_Two guards that seemed more like orcs rushed at her, but she simply slammed her extended palms at their stomachs, making them gasp in pain and shock, falling unconscious this was noted by another pair of guards that immediately rushed at her, she simply shot her hands upwards, and the ground in front of both elf guards rushing at her ruptured, forming a wall in which their crashed quite violently, this actions provoked the rest of the green armored elf guard who immediately began to pour out, surrounding her with pikes that had glowing tips that seemed to emanate small thunders out of it, yet she seemed unaffected by this._

"_Bravo…bravo, how brave, and how foolish of you to come here…princess"_

_The brown haired girl didn't even reacted at the taunting voice of the woman who had emerged out of the carriage, clad in very expansive robes that seemed to gleam like gold, the hair of the woman being of a purple shade that was eyesore but neatly tied on a double bun behind her head, her eyes being on a grey colored shade, her hip held of course a single rapier, the hilt greatly decorated and ornamented._

_The brown haired girl simply raised her sight a little, smiled a little and nodded, the woman seemed to notice this a little too late because she saw with utter shock how the guards around the 'princess' began to fall, half of them clutching their necks while the others seemed to stiffen like wooden tables when white bolts of energy hit them, the 'princess' simply moved away one of the elf guards in front of her gently, yet this was enough to cause the guy to fall to the ground._

_The woman simply sneered and ordered two Orc guards mounting what seemed Rhinos with two frontal horns to attack at the 'princess' the brown haired girl simply advanced as the riders came at her, with a facility that many found frightening she backslapped the head of the first beast, sending it flying to her right, the second pulled his sword and tried to slash her, she simply made a sweeping motion with her left hand at the ground, the beast and rider were send flying away when the ground simply pushed them away towards a building._

_The woman simply sneered in anger at that, "Royal Guard!" she commanded, the 'princess' simply stared with a frown as several people that were obviously not members of the guard showed in front of her, then the woman began to advance, taking a frontal position, drawing her rapier out and kissing the blade softly, a smirk on her face, one that was obviously erased once she saw the people backing the 'princess' up._

_The 'princess' soon was backed up by several people, because they were behind her she was unable to see their faces, but she knew they were behind her, backing her up, she didn't knew how many, just that they were there, at her side._

"_You think because the guardians selected knights and you have squires at your side means you will win you have another thing coming, Crystalia shall not bow to a petty outsider like you"_

"…_I will not allow people suffer more because of you" and with that told the 'princess' charged she felt the people behind her follow her on her charge, she could see clearly how the woman and the guard charged as well, anger etched on her face._

_Brushing the back of her left hand with her right hand, the 'princess' seemed to summon something, holding it on her hands as she jumped at the charging opponents, soon she saw she had a yellow like staff, with a cry she lunged at her opponent…_

"Hooeee!"

Sakura Kinomoto bolted out of her bed in shock and fright, small drops of sweat running down her forehead after that extreme dream.

None of the dreams she had before were as vivid and live as this one, not even her first dream, the dream that showed her the world that she would enter in the future, the world of magic, becoming a card captor, and eventually becoming the mistress of the Sakura cards, once the Clow cards.

But this dream, so different than the one she had before, on her other dreams she never had dreamt of another people, well maybe Li, or Tomoyo, but never of people she had never met, well perhaps Kero, but in the end she had met him a day later.

Maybe her prophetic dreams allowed her to see people she would meet on an immediate future, but then what would explain the strange setting she had dream as well, elves, horses that were more like mutant rhinos, and it was the very first time in her dreams that she could hear someone speak.

That and also the fact she seemed super strong in that dream, she basically slapped those rhino things barehanded, like swatting flies away, perhaps she was using The Power card to gain incredible strength, but yet that didn't explain how she made a wall of rock emerge out of the ground with ease, maybe she was using The Earthy as well…yet in her dream she didn't saw herself calling forth the power of both of those cards.

It worried her; it really worried her, as she collapsed on her back, attempting to return to Morpheus's embrace, she idly wondered when she would get some peace.

It had been four months ever since her last involvement with the Clow cards, or with anything relating Clow Reed for that matter, his dead lover trying to kill her had been quite a shock, and in China no less, the fact this had been kinda foreseen had her slightly pissed.

She was learning to this point of stopping ignoring her most vivid and intense dreams.

Now leaning on her bed, and staring at the ceiling, she wondered many things on her life, at her short age she had become the new mistress of the Clow Cards, now aptly named the Sakura Cards (and aptly colored as well) she had also created a new card, the Nothingness card was transformed into another card, she had a boyfriend, international mage like boyfriend mind you, and all at the tender age of eleven.

But as she stared at the ceiling, and replayed the scenes of her dream on her head, she idly wondered what the future might hold now for her.

"…Why me?" was her only question to the world before she went to sleep again, this time without odd dreams bothering her…for the moment.

* * *

"Is it her?"

"Yes…her mana reading match the one of the queen, it is her"

"Hard to believe that the next in line to the throne barely reach the age of twelve"

"Inconsequential, our mission is clear, we capture or eliminate"

"She is just a little girl; elimination is out of the question"

"Illogical, her mere presence is a danger for Crystalia's stability; elimination is the correct and most logical way"

"You machinos and your logic, that's why I hate working with you, you don't have a heart, and you don't have a conscience"

"I don't need a 1000 terabyte brain processor and a dual core memory enhancer to realize that as assassins we do not require hearts or a conscience"

"You disgust me"

"Irrelevant, let's continue with surveillance"

"…you know, on some worlds doing this is considered law offense and more to a little girl…well…"

"I said irrelevant"

The man just smiled, tipping his hat forward so his eyes could be covered of the neon yellow gaze of his companion.

"Remember our objectives, and what stands here, the safety of this girl is irrelevant compared to the safety of Crystalia"

"I know I know" the man said.

"Good" was all she said as they continued surveillance over an unsuspecting Sakura…

_**Morning…**_

Sakura groaned as she stood up, she had been unable to catch some well earned sleep after that dream she had, perhaps two hours of sleep, and that was it, fragments of the dream kept popping into place, making her wake up and remain awake for several minutes, sometimes hours, she was glad there was no school yet, a month separated her of the new school period.

"What a night" she muttered to herself, looking at the ceiling of her room, the twelve years old girl could only smile slightly, even if the dream had been…intense, it surely was a prelude of things to come, good and bad things.

To be honest after the Clow cards and Clow Reed's former love trying to kill her, not to mention the reincarnated former master of the cards putting tests to her, things have been boring, and while Tomoyo had spiced her life with some modeling, mostly of outfits her dad would have an aneurysm because they left little to the imagination of lolicons, her life had been boring up to this point.

Kero, as guardian of the cards, and the only guardian that could actually shift to a small form, stayed with her, helping her, after all being the mistress of the cards didn't immediately made her a sorceress of the level of Clow Reed had been back in his prime.

Learning what he learned had become a habit of her, that and using the bubble card to clean the dishes, now that was a card anyone would want, and Kero seemed to be slightly surprised that Sakura had found another use to the seemingly useless card besides using it to wash him.

With a stiffed yawn, Sakura stood up of bed, hearing the slight snorts of Kero on his small flat/drawer, after all they had done, Kero had took the habit of sleeping a little more, of course that habit would end as soon school period starts once again, she has to wake up early to help with the chores in the house, everyone had to pull their weight in the Kinomoto household.

Her dad and brother were surely out of the house as well, the house was hers to command and to clean, they were surely surprised she could both clean the house fast enough and with extreme precision and still have time to eat and go to her part-time work.

Yep, she was already saving money for college, and to whatever she wanted to buy for herself, sure as hell she wasn't going to spend the last two years of high school working, like her brother.

Of course her part-time work as a courier on Tomoeda, while not profiting as many would expect, allowed her to see the city like she didn't see before during her hunt of the Clown cards, besides the tips were good.

With sigh she made it to the kitchen, finding a small pile of clean dishes piled to one side, a small sigh escaped her lips, sometimes her dad or brother would take some minutes to clean up the dishes after dinner, leaving her no workload in the kitchen besides her own breakfast in the mornings.

"Well, more time for me then" Sakura said with a small smile, making her way to the bathroom, she would cook later, now it was 'me' time, today was one of those lazy days in the courier office, the only day she could actually arrive late, true it was not what she was taught all her life, punctuality was paramount on her society, it showed commitment, but once in a while doesn't hurt at all.

_Ten minutes later…_

"Hmm, what a good bath" she exclaimed to herself, making her way towards the kitchen, already clad in her favorite light pink sweatpants and jacket, her bare feet echoing on the wooden floor, she was happy, her spiking was evidence of it.

Once on the kitchen she started to work, she would indulge herself on her favorite food, rice omelets, she had more than enough time for them.

As she worked on the breakfast, humming a tone along the way and tapping her foot on the floor, she suddenly stopped cooking, her humming as well, the knife she was using to chop some vegetables also…

"Hyia!" she cried, turning around, fast, much to her shock she tossed the knife, hard, the thing went up to the hilt, imbedding itself on a wall.

"…Hooeee" she moaned, looking in horror at what she had done, not because she just tossed the knife like a spear, or the fact the knife was now firmly stuck to a wall up to the hilt, but because she just had stuck a knife to the hilt, in a wall of her house, too near or her dad's favorite picture, and so hers, her mother's picture.

"Kuso" she muttered, reaching for the knife, and trying to pull, seeing that this one would not budge, she decided to the next course of action.

Turning the oven off, she went to her room, she needed the power and wood cards for this.

The first floor remained silent, only the steady breathing of a male who had his eyes wide as how close that knife had come of meeting his forehead!

"Okay, she has eyes behind her head…no sneaking while holding sharp objects" the invisible stalker bowed, silently leaving the place, just the same way he entered, through a window.

* * *

Absentminded was not a word to describe Sakura, that was certain, the only times her mind detached from her body was when she had visions so vivid that she failed to see reality from the dream, like the time her head met the blunt end of her baton because her baton had suddenly transformed into her pink magic staff in mid-spin, suffice to say, it hurt, a lot.

After leaving her home and a generous amount of sweets for Kero to eat in her room while he plays video-games and sometimes sees the soap-operas (He'll never admit it) Sakura, clad for her daily work, made her way out in her roller skates.

Then again in her distracted state and on roller skates is not exactly the best idea ever.

"HEY WATCH IT!"

"Gomenasai!"

This was the third time she nearly crashed with a car, and this one was not exactly as forgiving as the other two drivers.

"IF YOU CAN'T KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD THEN LOOSE IT!" the angry driver replied, not long he sped away, his car leaving tire marks on the asphalt.

"Jerk" Sakura muttered, slightly smirking when she heard sirens not far from where the car went, "Serves you right" she added as an afterthought, imagining the man fuming his head off at the traffic cop after stopping him and giving him a ticket.

Yes it was odd of her being like that, but well, one attempt of assassination by a ghost, the test of Yue, which was harsh in itself, and Clow's reincarnated self tests kinda made her mature a little faster than other girls of her age.

Also it helps to have a boyfriend who can shoot thunders with a sword and a piece of paper.

So far the reason that kept her distracted eluded her with great skill, and was pissing her off!

Shaking her head, Sakura rolled her way down to the courier post, which had a garage at its side.

Big T courier/garage shop was new compared to other business in Tomoeda, baring only five years of being open, compared to the fifty or some of other business, also the courier post/ garage shop was different from other courier posts for several reasons.

It was the sole competitor of flashlight delivery, the second courier post on Tomoeda, which had bought or assimilated other courier posts after they bankrupted or were to, two, it was by far the most relievable way to get your packages or letters from point A to point B without a hitch, third, the boss of the courier post she worked on was in fact a former convict from over the pond who decided to start anew.

Caught red-handed after shoplifting with a gun, he was sentenced for ten years in jail, kinda light considering that where he was arrested these kind of crimes were punished harshly, the only reason he got out light was because the gun was a toy gun and he had stole food and money to feed himself and pay himself a room, he got the ten years because he stole and beat up the shopkeeper with so said gun.

In jail he saw the worse of mankind, and swore to start over if he got out, which he did, after ten years he was free, the first thing he did was buy a ticket and get the hell out of the place that held bitter memories, with the remaining money he got from works inside the prison, he was able to buy the building which now hold Big T's garage and courier post, after that those unable to meet the harsh requirements that flashlight demanded on their employees, meaning all of them had to have cars or bikes to make the deliveries, Big T endorsed the use to bicycles, roller skates or modified bicycles with bike engines made by the employees to make the deliveries, which varied from simple letters and clothes bought on the internet, to a piano, which Sakura once made part of the escort convoy to deliver it to.

The last reason Big T was so famous was because the delivery prices were criminally cheap, meaning more people could send meager things without exerting their pockets, meaning also that the couriers got more tips, tips they didn't spend on gasoline for their vehicles.

Making it to the entrance of the garage, Sakura stopped right in front of a teenage kid working on some bike chains, greasing them up, "Asura, good morning"

"Good morning to you Sakura-sama, the boss is waiting for ya, he ordered me to basically pry you out of your rollers and grease them up for a long day" the teen identified as Asura said, making Sakura frown.

"It is a slow day Asura, why he would ask them to be greased for a long one?" she asked.

"Don't know, but I got a peek at your road this day, you basically have to go to one end and the other of the city, I'll have them ready for you alongside some water bottles, you'll need them" losing her skates off, Sakura handed them to Asura, who immediately began to work on them, taking the tires and greasing the joints with expert ease.

It was odd for someone to go on their socks on their place of work, but the boss was so informal that they didn't had defined uniforms, the only way you could only knew a person was of Big T's courier post was the vests they wore over their clothes that had the logo of the post, alongside their names, and their radios.

That it was informal looking didn't mean it wasn't organized.

Reaching for her locker, Sakura immediately donned her vest, she passed her way towards the longue room, usually in these days the other couriers would be there, resting after a long delivery or simply watching TV, oddly enough the longue room was empty.

"Odd" she muttered, then shrugged and made her way towards the office of the boss.

The boss in question was a six foot tall man, with dark skin, built to break someone with a snap of his hand, clad in baggy clothes that, in Sakura's honest opinion, would make Tomoyo break in sad tears, then tackle her boss and drag him to one of her rooms to dress him properly, after finding something of his size.

"Boss, Sakura reporting!" Sakura said with a mock salute.

"About time star struck, it seems we got caught once again in another plot of flashlight" the boss said.

"Again?" Sakura wondered, "They must really hate you to do these things, what they did this time?" Sakura asked.

"Simple, they knew it was a slow day to us, and most of our couriers would be resting, so they closed for the day, leaving us underhanded for the combined workload…assholes" Sakura made a face at that last word, instantly pointing at a jar on the end of the room.

"Okay okay, I will put my five yen there, sheez, you're like my mom but smaller"

"Boss" Sakura drawled.

"Yeah I get it, basically I had to call everyone to cover up, even then we don't have enough people, we all are taking four jobs each, right now Akane is overworked on keeping the system online and keeping you all updated, so grab your gear and requests and get a move on!" Sakura didn't need to be told twice, she bolted out of the office immediately, reaching the second office, in this one a single radio and headpiece waited for her.

Now with all needed, all what Sakura needed were orders.

"Kinomoto, first order of delivery, 78 ave, crossing Tomoeda College, our first client requests us to take a fragile vase to the museum, do so carefully, the password is 'dust to dust' get a move on"

"_Good old Akane, sometimes too serious for her own good, sometimes she sounds like relaying a mission for special operatives rather than couriers"_ Sakura thought with a smile as she made it to the garage, there her roller skates were already waiting for her, wasting no time she put them on and began to roll away, faster than before, after all tips for fast, relievable service were the reason she was the star deliver of Big T post and garage.

The feeling of someone following her fell over her again.

* * *

"I have her trail again, look at her go; she is like a rabbit on coffee"

"Her speed might be a problem for you if you attempt to snipe her"

"Agreed, I need her to stop somewhere secluded…we don't want to cause unnecessary panic"

"Irrelevant"

"Look you might drop that off, we don't want to cause unnecessary panic, besides I am a sniper, I am suited to one shot one kill, not gunfights, especially against the police force"

"The police force present is minimal, their weapons are primitive and unrelievable, they still rely on solid ammunition, our shields are more than enough to hold some shells"

"Listen, get it into your thick bug infested, Trojan damaged CPU you call a brain, my operation, my shot, and I say do the deed on a secluded place, clear?"

"…you didn't had to be so cruel"

"Ugh"

He had to admit, he was a little cruel, to a sentient construct like a machinos, what he said was very insulting, it insinuated that she was basically diving herself into dubious net pages, and didn't updated regularly to erase the damage on her CPU.

Well, done is done, he had to focus in a way to get the princess into a secluded place, so far he had only seen one, but he had to make it so without looking suspicious to her, part of the trap is the target not seeing the trap at all.

With a sigh he brought his rifle to his eyes again, the lens crosshair focused on Sakura's form, aimed at her head.

He didn't want to do it, but his duty was beyond his wants.

Sakura would die today.

* * *

"Another delivery done and done Akane, what's next?" Sakura asked on her headpiece.

"Nothing yet, it seems you covered them all, and in record time"

"And I got enough tips on me today to pay me an apartment for a month, gotta thank flashlight for this" Sakura said with a smile.

"Yes well, you are the only one thankful; the others are cursing a storm now"

"Then the jar of curses is going to be filled today, heading back"

"Acknowledge…wait, we got another call"

"Uh, really?" Sakura asked in shock and annoyance.

"Really, the client wants you in 'Penguin Park' in ten minutes or no tip; he needs you to deliver something important"

"I'm close; I'll be there in five"

With that Sakura began to make her way towards Penguin Park, the reason the park had such a name was because the park, while normal in appereance, was dominated by the massive penguin king slide, also several of her fights during her time as card captor and during their eventual transformation to Sakura cards ended up here, go figure why.

Rolling her way fast, and knowing the sector better than anyone else it was a piece of cake to make it to the park, at this hour it was not odd to her to see no one but her there, not even the kids in the swings waiting for their parents after a long day of work where present, and it wasn't less, it was already dark, her father was going to pop a vessel if she comes late.

Then again she has also the right to pop one, after the so many times he came late and left dinner she worked hard on, cold.

Reaching the park, Sakura stopped, scanning the area, the feeling she had been feeling for a good chunk of the day returning full force, something that was here and didn't belong was near.

"Akane, I'm here, no sign of the client"

"Odd, he told he would be waiting at the statue of the penguin king"

"Well he ain't, I swear if this other flashlight goons trying to intimidate us one by one I swear…"

"Calm yourself Kinomoto, scout the area, look for the client, if he is not there vacate the area, you have receives that need to be deliver here"

"Yes mom" Sakura said, lazily looking around, her eyes darting to one end of the other of the park, no sight of the client at all.

"It's a hoax, heading back"

"Acknowledged"

Cutting the signal off, Sakura began to make her way back.

"Sorry" Sakura heard, turning around she gasped when she felt something hot, like…nothing she could describe, pierce her chest.

Pain was inconsequential as she fell to the ground with a flat 'thud' and slightly coughed, her vision gathering red when she did so.

"W-w-wh…" the ground was a constant reminder of what she was done to her.

She closed her eyes, asking why.

And she opened them again.

Gasping for air, Sakura eyes darted around in fear, true, genuine fear, her hands were already clasped to her chest, trying to feel the hole that had been done to her, the hole that had been shot open.

"**Calm down, my child"**

Sakura looked around, there was a white void, she didn't knew where the voice came from, the only thing she knew was that she was…

"No, nonononononoNO!" Sakura gasped, trying to stand up, but something stopped her, a hand, right on her chest, clasping her hands, gently.

"**You are in between"**

"Between? Between what?"

"**Between life and death" **

Sakura panicked again, trying to stand up once more, but the pressure on her chest remained, it was gentle, but it was impossible to break.

"**You worry too much, you won't die"**

"Won't die? I got shot!?"

"**Yes, but if you think I will allow your death you have another thing coming"**

Sakura eyes were wide, not knowing what this female voice meant.

"**No one, and I mean, no ONE, messes with my chosen one!"**

* * *

"Ancients…what a waste"

"You didn't aim to the head, she suffered…you obviously wanted this"

"Don't…just don't Raina, just shut the hell up" the man said, slowly approaching the body of the girl he had just killed, her eyes were still open, the lively green color in her eyes now dulled, a look of betrayal in them.

"Find peace in whatever heaven you might end" he said, kneeling in front of the girl he killed, reaching for her face and getting ready to close her eyes…

"MOVE!" only to feel Raina push him away, then the sound akin to god punching the stars to oblivion itself.

Only he realized it was Raina's armor and hardened skin giving away against a fist.

Neurion looked in shock, as if time was slowed down as how his vice-captain was lifted by a vicious hit on her stomach, his eyes traveled to the owner of the fist, his eyes going wide as he saw the girl he sniped, the girl he killed, more alive than before, and royally pissed if her glowing yellow…

"_Yellow!" _was the last thought Neurion had before a gloved fist met his armored face, breaking his helmet, his nose and jaw, sending him flying towards the penguin king, breaking the pure concrete figure with ease, and kept flying towards the woods nearby.

Raina by her part covered her stomach with her hands, on her knees and gasping for air, looking shocked and utterly defeated, not knowing where it to feel ashamed because their victory was snatched out of her hands, or lucky because the punch didn't rip her in two, and had only ruptured a small coolant line that was already sealed by the nanites in her.

Slowly looking up, Raina gasped in shock when a gloved hand seized her face and slowly rose her up, her armor did little to deter the physically smaller girl from lifting her up with ease…

"**You got some nerve" **Raina just looked at the girl in shock, it was impossible, so the stories were true, a Rayearth had to truly be 'near dead' and not truly dead so they could become rayearths, die in their former forms to be reborn as crystalians.

"**Attacking my chosen knight"**

"She is a danger" Raina answered.

"**To you queen, not to Crystalia"**

"One way or another, she will die, you can't be always present to help her"

"**True…but I can be damn sure to give her time to be ready for you two"**

The next thing Raina knows is that she is slammed to the ground, repeatedly, she counted at least ten times, her armor groaning with each blow towards the ground, then tossed upwards, just to be seized by the ankles, and then spun like a ragdoll, tossed away towards Neurion's last know location.

The park remained eerie silent after that, only the steady breathing of a small girl who stared at the broken trees with her golden eyes, then stared around.

"**This world is not yet ready to know…hmm, now for an alibi"**

Then honk of a car in the distance seemed to draw her like flame does to a moth.

"**Heeello alibi"**

* * *

She felt…light, there was no other way to describe it, she felt light, like a feather, her clothes didn't weighted as much as she expected, she could feel grass tickling her fingertips, the wind licking her hair, the water hitting her bare feet, the sun warming her face…

"_Wait a minute, I have shoes, Penguin Park is all but sand, there are no water but the small water fountain on the edge of the park, and its night!"_

Opening her eyes, Sakura eyes could not give credit to what she was seeing, there, in the spotless sky sat perhaps the brightest sun she had seen, yet it didn't bothered her at all, the few science class she knew told her immediately that the sun shouldn't be of that size, or the planet would surely be the biggest oven on the solar system, serving well cooked humans.

But there it was, a sun twice the size she is used to glance, not see directly, glance…where those five moons?

"What? Where? Hoe?"

"**Hoe? Really? That's all you have to say after getting shot, tethering between life and death and seeing five moons? Hoe?"**

Sakura was too dumbstruck to even answer that, the voice came from everywhere, but at the same time it came right in front of her.

"Whe-where am I?" Sakura asked.

"**You are where you're supposed to be…for the moment"** the voice said.

"Where…but I don't want to be here…I want to go back" Sakura exclaimed.

"**Not now, I want to talk"**

"Talk? About what?" Sakura asked, eyes darting around.

"**About why an enhanced and a machinos wanted you dead to start with"**

Sakura frowned at that, clearly remembering that particular moment, "Talking about my last moments is not exactly the way to broach a subject" Sakura said.

"**Says the girl who has seen death as close as the most veteran soldiers in war"**

"We haven't had wars in over 75 years" Sakura countered.

"**Correct, but you really think those survivors, upon seeing you would see a little girl? No, they would see a sister in arms, someone who has stared death straight in the eyes and said 'don't even think about it' that's why Big T calls you star struck, because you look if you have seen entire solar systems die" **the voice said.

"I haven't seen planets blow up with people in them…but I have been close…closer than I want to admit" Sakura says, slowly standing up, looking at the sky, staring at the five moons, oddly enough the moons look like if they had life in them, like if they were…

"**The moons, they have people in them"**

"Living there? Colonized?" Sakura asked, it was something pulled out of a sci-fi movie.

"**Yes, those two come of one of the moons, the red one to be specific" **the voice pointed out, Sakura looked at the red moon, red was not a way to describe the color to be honest, more like a copper like coloration.

"Why?" Sakura finally asked, staring at the copper colored moon with some sadness.

"**They were ordered to"**

Sakura scoffed, "I'm not that important, maybe a few months ago I would have believed that, but I'm not important, not anymore, the cards…I'm the new mistress of cards, the Li have accepted me as the owner of the cards, there is nothing more, it's over"

"**You really think that?"**

"Yeah, what's next?" Sakura asked.

"**Your life won't end at twelve, despite what you think, what has happened is just a little peek of what will come to your life"**

"If my life will be looking over my back every minute then I don't want it"

"**You realize you don't have a say in this…just like the one that shot you"**

"Not a say…he shot me!"

"**But have you wondered why? Why he said sorry before he shot? Why he looked so sorrowful when he pulled the trigger, even with the helmet on you could see his eyes, they were full of remorse, he didn't want that, yet he did it, why? Because he had no choice, because forces beyond his control dictate him to pull the trigger, to let that laser burn a hole in your skin, in your muscles, your veins, your heart, your very soul"**

Sakura remained quiet, simply collapsing on the grass and kneeling, looking at the sky once more.

"**Life doesn't have to end just because you think it does…this is not over until the fat lady sings, and so far I haven't see a fat lady"**

Sakura giggled at that, and then sobered up.

"What now? Am I dead?"

"**No, you are reborn, between life and death only a new life can come, those who come of these experiences never come back the same, they come back changed, they see their lives in a different pallet, people in a different picture, the world in a different screen, for now rest, rest, for what comes ahead will truly test you"**

"Test me?"

"**Yes…for you are my chosen one, you are my knight, now sleep"**

"But I don't wanna" Sakura whined, letting out a cute yawn that made the female voice giggle, Sakura eyes felt heavy as she went to sleep, the problems of the outside world forgotten.

Her body stood on a sterile bed, on a hospital, with several bandages over her petit frame, several equipment tied to her and monitoring her vitals, her family, her whole family at her side, her boss at one side, looking worried and ready to cry if she didn't woke up.

She slept for two days.

At the end of the second day she woke up with a gasp, like coming out of the water, her father was at her side the moment her eyes began to dart around in panic, only to soften and stop when she saw him at her side, looking haggard, she summarized that he hadn't slept in days.

When she saw her brother Toya flanking her, looking just like her dad, she realized that both of them had been at her side, not wanting to sleep until she woke up.

Sakura let a small smile lit up, letting them know she was fine and happy to see them, but the tension in her smile told them all.

She was too tired to do anything else but to smile, she was just minutes short of going to sleep again, which she did, but both her father and brother knew that she would wake up the next day.

The next time she woke up her hand instantly shot up at something, she didn't knew what, but something told her to grip whatever she had caught in her hand, and slowly squeeze.

"Oh God!"

The cry of pain made Sakura wake up fully and stare, with shocked eyes how her right hand gripped the wrist of an innocent nurse who held a single needle on her hand, so said hand was slowly turning purple.

"Gomen!" Sakura cried, releasing the wrist of the nurse, the nurse by her part rubbed her wrist in pain, Sakura noted how she had taken two steps back while at it.

"Well, we can add to your medical history that you definitely don't like needles" the nurse said with a nervous smile.

Sakura mimicked the smile, "No…I don't" she answered, letting the arm go limp and rest of the bed, "Uh…what was the shot anyway?" she asked.

"A single tetanus shot, you did get pinned by two cars and had multiple cuts by the damaged metal, we had to make sure, I added one before you woke up last night" the nurse summarized, seeing Sakura's lost look.

"You don't remember" she stated, Sakura shook her head, "Can't say I blame you, most patients block the experience fully, the way the brain copes with the pain some say, trying to forget" the nurse said, slowly turning away.

"I'll let your family know you're awake, good day" Sakura nodded slightly, thanking silently the nurse for this.

Not less than two minutes after the nurse left, the room was again occupied, this time by her father and her older brother, albeit older was a loose term considering that he was born a 29th of February, and his birthday was every four years, meaning he was a leaping, technically, she was the oldest sister.

"Sakura-chan" her father whispered, holding her hand, Sakura let a small smile on her lips, "You had us worried"

"Don't…worry…" Sakura said slowly, her early exertions were catching up with her, not to mention that her body hurt, a lot, everywhere.

"…What happened?" Sakura asked.

Her father and brother looked hesitant to answer her question, "What happened?" she asked again, this time more forcefully, her family noted this; the demand on her voice was palpable.

"According to the cops you were going out of Penguin Park when suddenly a truck hit you and a car, pinning you on both of them, it was sheer luck you survived the hit, apparently the truck had a malfunction on its breaks and steering wheel, it was unable to stop or move away, you, the driver of the car and the truck driver were lucky, especially you, they say you should be dead, I'm glad is not that" her father replied, much to her shock.

"…When I will be able to leave?" she asked again.

"Don't know" Toya answered, "Like dad said, you should be dead, glad you're not, hell the truck and car got worse than you to be honest, they recon you should stay another week to see how you recover" he answered.

"I feel fine…just sore" Sakura simply answered.

"Sakura, you should have nearly all your bones broken, the doctors said you only have fissures in them" her dad said, making her blink.

"Fissures?"

"Yes, mini-fractures all over your skeleton, or so they say, they don't want to risk it thought, they want you on observation to see how they heal, those fissures can easily become full-blown fractures if you don't heal properly" Toya said.

"That means once you get out you have to quit your job" her dad added, much to her shock.

"What? Dad I can't! It was just an accident" Sakura argued.

"The doctors agreed with this Sakura-chan, I'm not against your job, but as you are it is a high-risk job, the constant movement would make the fissures worse, and they want you to rest as much as possible before you go to school" Sakura let a long, tired and annoyed sounding sigh, her family noting this.

"…We'll see how it goes" was all she said as she accommodated on the bed and closed her eyes.

"Sakura…"

"We'll see" she repeated, this time more forcefully, it was obvious all the information, instead of ease her, had in fact annoyed her to no end.

Seeing that Sakura was basically in no mood to talk after the news, her family left, her father leveling a small look to her, "For all what its worth I'm sorry"

"…You weren't driving the truck, you got nothing to apologize" Sakura whispered, but it was loud enough for him to hear.

_**A week later…**_

"Amazing, just…amazing" the doctor said, looking at some X-ray plaques, to be more specific Sakura's X-ray plaques.

Her whole ordeal had been, to be blunt, a sheer miracle, to survive being hit by a truck and pinned to a car, with only cuts, scraps and lacerations, alongside minor fissures on her skeleton was nothing short of a miracle, it was obvious someone was looking out for her, for the front of the truck looked more like if had hit a concrete wall rather than a little girl.

Now this, on his left hand he had Sakura's X-rays of the day she awoke, her skeleton, more precisely her ribcage and skull, showing the many fissures that still dotted her body, her spine was the only area that didn't showed this fissures, a true miracle or Sakura would be singing a different tune altogether.

On his right hand were X-rays of the same areas, taken a week later, prior to her imminent discharge, what he saw amazed him.

Her skull and ribcage showed no fissures at all, it was spotless, her arms, legs, her pelvis, every single bone in her body were as it was before the accident, the skeleton of a healthy 12 year old girl, no fissures, fractures or anything that could be translated as damage, in fact her skeleton looked more like ready to withstand another round with the truck and leave with nothing else but dust.

And that was just the tip, Sakura's body had healed completely, no cuts or scrapes, she was brand new, just out of the fabric, she simply didn't had any kind of psychical wounds, but one thing is the body, other is the mind, his area of expertise was the body, the mind was too complicated, even for those who dive in that area, she had survived a very traumatic experience, who knows how she would cope with it.

One thing was certain, she was more than healthy than the average girl, and was obvious she would be able to undertake her part-time job as courier.

* * *

Toya honestly had never seen his sister this alive, the trip back home had been, to be honest, short, Sakura had basically set the pace, which left him and his dad dead tired, while she was as fresh as a cabbage, it was still unbelievable that she had been hospitalized, usually newly discharged are as lethargic as a blind and deaf zombie, but apparently his sister was the opposite of the rule.

She was fine as dandy, he was half-tempted to break to her that he knew about her and the Sakura cards and the many times she used it, and ask her if she by some chance had used some card that actually allows her to heal from wounds, or a card that had shielded her of the horrible wounds that she should have after getting rammed by a truck head front.

Yet he couldn't, Sakura by nature was defensive, always on the defensive, never in his life he had seen her take the offensive, not even with that Li brat had been nearly been killed by Yue during his trials of the cards, even then she was hesitant to take the bold step onward, on the offensive she sucks, to be honest, the very rare occasions she has ever been on the offensive it has been because someone's life was on the line, on those rare occasions her sister became what he usually nicknames her, a giant, and you don't mess with a giant.

Defensively she has better options, and this worries him, ever since she became the mistress of the Sakura Cards, she has been on the risk of getting discovered by their dad, three times to be exact, she had lied to him those three times to keep the secret, and with reason, their dad would have a cardiac arrest if ever found out that his only daughter had been fighting for her life, not to mention that he would have to intervene, revealing what he knew about Sakura and the cards, bringing a wedge among the family, the last thing he wanted to do, family was important to him, to Sakura, to their father, their dad finding out would mean a gap that not all the magic in the world could hope to mend.

With a sigh he resigned himself to keep yet another secret, as they finally reached home, he noted how Sakura had immediately went to her bedroom, surely to see how Kero was, the small creature was surely worried sick, after all he was now Sakura's guardian.

There he smiled sadly, the thing must be beating itself, some guardian it turned to be.

The last glimpse of Sakura he had was of her left gloved hand…

"Gloved hand?"

* * *

"Sakura-chan!"

The mistress of cards smiled sadly as she saw Kero babble his little eyes out, she couldn't blame him, he had already lived the lost of Clow Reed as an elder, it would tear him if he lost her as a child, with roughly months after they met.

Scratching the head of the diminutive guardian with her left gloved…

"_Wait back up what!?"_

Sakura had lived a lot of magical odd experiences, enough to send a normal fickle mind to an asylum, but not her, before and after what she lived with the Clow cards, she was used to odd, the yearned for it, expected it.

So when she saw the same fingerless glove with the same emblem the Sakura cards now had, but in a gold like yellow crystal, firmly set on her left upper hand, somehow she knew that her life was going to change…again.

"…What in the name of…"

"Sakura-chan, why you have a trembling red dot in your forehead?"

"_Trembling red dot HOLY!"_

Sakura reacted almost instantly, hitting the deck, covering Kero with her body, she was able to see a disturbance in the very air, like some sort of invisible beam sailing too near of her, making a hole on her window, her favorite curtain and her wall!

Someone really wanted her dead, and this time they were aiming for the sure kill, on the sanctity of her bedroom, on her home!

"Ohh, now I'm mad" she didn't knew where that came from, but she was definitely pissed.

As if her magic book read her thoughts, it floated to her, opening itself and exposing the deck of pink cards inside.

"_Decisions, decisions" _she began in her mind, with her head low, _"Should I use the power to maul him to a fine paste…where that came from…no, no…use the grow and stomp on him! Okay I'm a little pissed, relax…use the firey card to burn him from the inside out!"_

"…"

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME" Sakura bellowed, taking the magical key out of the book, then taking the shot and the shield with her.

He was going to get a taste of his own medicine, courtesy of the never missing Shot card.

* * *

Neurion slung his Deathshot particle rifle to his shoulder and to his back, letting the magnetic straps on it to do the job, then he began to run, run like hell, optical camouflage activated as well.

He made the mistake of looking back, and he saw a very pissed newly minted Rayearth of earth coming out of her home, one who was already on his trail.

"_Of all the knights we had to get the one that can feel even the slightest vibrations on the ground even with shoes on, make earthquakes with just a stomp and survived a particle shot to the heart!"_

He had reasons to be worried, the legendary knights were as dangerous and powerful as the myth told, he might not be a millennia old, in fact he is 35, and he rather live long enough to see his son marry and get grandchildren.

Thing is that when you piss a Rayearth knight, your life is already forfeit.

Other fact is that the only somewhat effective way to stop a Rayearth from their target is putting an army between them and the army, and since this world didn't had an army per se, since wars or conflicts hadn't broke in 75 years, he was pretty much on his own.

This was proven right when he leaped away, from roof to roof, looking down he saw the Rayearth of earth giving chase, suddenly somersaulting over a car, her jump was short, and she ended up landing on the back of the car with such strength that she lifted the car off its wheels and bended the area of her landing, ground included.

He gulped at the very pissed off expression on her face, oh and he also noted the flying toy at her side, trying to talk some sense into her, or asking her how she was able to do that somersault.

"Oh crap!" he shouted, he had to take the hit when people where on their houses and not on the streets, they might have hindered the girl long enough for him to escape, after all she was a girl, a very polite looking girl.

Then again according to some intelligence files, the Rayearth of wind was in fact not so polite and as blunt as a wrecking ball…

"_Oh by the pillars it's already happening!"_

He could not allow it to happen, if the sharing continued then the girl would have the backbone needed to fight, as he saw in her eyes before his first hit on her, she didn't had a malicious bone on her, but the other knights did had a mean streak according to the seers, who recommended not to piss them off, or there would be little to pick off the offenders afterwards, if there was something to pick of course.

"Dammit, Raina I'm heading to the location with a VERY piss-off newly minted Rayearth on my tail! She has the glove; I repeat she has the glove!"

"Void and damnation! What did you did!?"

"Shoot her, apparently she has developed a serious case of 'shoot me again and your dead' aversion, be glad I haven't led her to a car jam, she would have toss them around like ragdolls!"

"Inconse…"

"The hell they are, this kid just gained the powers of a Rayearth knight and now is chasing me to the location, she is pissed, being trailed by some sort of magic plushy AND she saw the particle beam after I fired, must remind you it came out of the barrel of a deathshot rifle, that kid…we are way over our heads, we must pull back!"

"No! we can still take her down, she is still too fresh!"

"Rayearths learn too fast, you know it! Combat will only accelerate their growth, return to Crystalia, warn the guard, tell them to not trust the queen!"

"WHAT!? She is our lady!"

"According to the guardians and the glove the girl has, not anymore" Neurion said, jumping into another roof and sliding off of the roof, landing on the ground and moving away, Sakura hot on his trail.

"I need confirmation, site still accorded?"

"Confirmed, guide her to the construction site, make sure she is not followed"

"Then mission failed, she has a flying toy tailing her"

Neurion didn't heard what Raina said next, the next thing he knows and his attention is drawn to, its that something slams onto him, hard.

Crying in pain in the alley, Neurion had little time to ponder what had tackled him when he felt the armor on his back, weapon included meet the hard bricks of a wall, hard, and while he was at it being dragged down to his butt, down to Sakura's eye level.

There he noted that she no longer was being tailed by that magical plushy, but instead now she was flanked by a massive tiger/lion hybrid with wings and armor on, looking pissed as her.

He would have retaliated, years of training had taught him he was on a disadvantage, and the vibro-knife he had hidden on his boots would help a lot against the massive winged animal, against a Rayearth not so much.

So it was not surprise to him when she slammed him again on the wall, harder than before, he didn't cry in pain, but mentally he cursed when he heard his deathshot rifle being totaled by the brick wall and pressure.

"Why?" was the question Sakura made, her voice said one thing, pain, betrayal, rage, but her eyes, Neurion summarized, said another story.

They said 'tell me now or else' and with a Rayearth that 'else' is usually accompanied with pain, lots of pain, no matter how sweet an innocent looking the knight might look.

"…Mission" was all he said, if it was the wrong thing to say, the girl surely showed him why.

Neurion next conscious thoughts is how much strength this girl truly has, for she easily lifted him by his chestplate, over her head, then slammed him towards the wall, breaking the 15 cm brick wall with him like nothing, and making him feel everything, his armor was designed to take the brunt of everything, be it kinetic of energy based, but it had its limits, limits it just met against a wall.

Slowly standing up with a horrible groan on his lips, he noted how the tiger/lion was again on him, the massive claw pinning his neck, Sakura was nowhere on sight, neither was his now useless rifle.

"Listen me well trash" the beast spoke, adding pressure to the neck, one of the few weak points of the armor, "I don't want to see you or any other person with you near my mistress, understand?" Neurion didn't spoke at that; his drill sergeant said the same to him when he began dating his then daughter, now wife.

"If you keep attacking her I will kill you, simple as that" the beast spoke, and seemed to think something else, "Then I will go for your family"

"YOU BASUUGH!" that got a reaction out of the captain of the guard, the beast smirked; slowly leaning to Neurion's armored face.

"I know what she is now…and I'm damn proud of her, try it again…I dare you" then the beast was gone, not before slamming one of its paws on his stomach, hard, Neurion groaned in pain, that girl had softened him good.

Slowly he stood up, instinctively reaching for his rifle, only to find an empty space.

"…she stole my rifle" he gasped, slowly gasping for air, and then letting a mirthless chuckle.

She stole his rifle.

Just like he stole her life.

* * *

Kero slowly hovered towards Sakura, the girl was hiding near a tree, away of the alley she had tossed the armored guy, without aid of the power card, or any other card she had caught up with the guy and had all but manhandled him.

Of course he had noted the distress in her eyes the moment she used the guy as an improvised battering ram, basically opening a hole on a thick wall, it was sheer luck no one on the streets had noted that, considering they were deep on an alley, he counted themselves lucky.

"Sakura-chan?" he asked, again back into his 'plushy' body, looking at the new mistress of the cards and friend with worry, on her right hand she held…

"Why you have that gun with you?" he asked, Sakura turned around, a small, sad smile on her face.

"…I don't know…I just took it"

It was all he would get of her as they make their way back home.

And it was that way until school began anew.

* * *

_**The codex Maxima, a 'pocket' encyclopedia…**_

_**Rayearth: the term 'Rayearth' is usually used to describe the legendary knights of Crystalia, warriors called from out of the borders of the crystalian empire by supernatural forces, granted powers to control the natural forces (wind, fire, water and in some cases earth) among other powers to defend the core world, catalogued among the 'ultra' class of any know species.**_

_**The word Rayearth is traduced in different languages among the many species living in Crystalia, it usually means 'protector' or 'warrior' the most accurate translation is 'warriors from the outside' due to the fact they are called from worlds outside crystalian borders, however the now extinct blood elves had a different translation for the word Rayearth, translated to their dead language, Rayearth means 'honor less outsiders'**_

_**Enhanced, superior and ultra: the many species on the universe have been catalogued by crystalian scientists in three different categories depending on their evolutionary tree, the natural are the baseline of any species, let it be human or elf, from there three branches extend, the enhanced, artificially enhanced beings, let it be by magical of technological ways, the enhanced class usually have their baseline attributes doubled or tripled to meet certain ends.**_

_**Then there is the superior, this is an oddity among evolutionary branches, as the species itself has evolved pass beyond the enhanced, gaining natural gifts that most species can only achieve by being technologically enhanced, only a handful of species in the universe have ever reached this, it is considered the pinnacle of evolution.**_

_**The ultras on the other hand are beings who have reached a level that enhance their natural gifts in ways no other superior can ever reach, ultras are rare and in between only a handful are born on each species, held in high regard an honor, the only know examples of an ultra is a Rayearth knight.**_

_**The AR-12X rifle: colloquially know as the 'deathshot' AR-12X sniper rifle, the weapon is a custom made weapon highly regulated by crystalian armies, only granted to the best marksman in their world, the AR-12X is a particle rifle, firing a single, invisible particle round at the speed of light or less, capable of tearing against the thickest armor ever created, the 'deathshot' has earned its name because simply, you shoot and the guy on the other end of the barrel dies, it never misses, gravity pull has little to no effect on the super-heated particles that travel at the speed of light.**_

_**The sniper rifle however is not favored by the best, seeing that several physical laws are ignored by the round, it makes aiming too easy, many snipers complain that the lack of this causes them to lose their edge, therefore they favor rifles that fire solid rounds or laser rifles that are still affected by physical laws, and only use the 'deathshot' on targets that really need to die.**_

_**There have been survivors of a shot of this rifle, three in fact, a dictator who got a round to his chest, where his heart should be, the sniper discovered that the dictator had a heart condition, and thus his heart was not on the right place, the second survivor was by accident, a kid had been behind the intended target, and had received the round on the neck, surviving by sheer luck, but was unable to speak afterwards, his vocal chords being burned clean by the particle round.**_

_**The third survivor is a recent one, a newly minted Rayearth that took the rifle as her own after catching up with the man who tried to kill her.**_

_**All AR-12X rifles have the names of the survivors carved on the stock, to remind the snipers that 'one shot, one kill' sometimes do not apply to them.**_

_**Machinos: the machinos are an advanced synthetic race that reached full sentience over two millennia ago, after their creators killed each other on a needless war, the machinos are the only survivors and witness of such event, after this the machinos began to work on the remains of their creators and the destroyed cities, leaving the planet not shy a century later, roaming the galaxy and harvesting whenever asteroid that came across their ships.**_

_**When they reached Crystalia, out of a fluke, as even the logical machinos are subjected to the laws of chaos and some luck, they confessed that in the two millennia they drifted in space, they had evolved, constantly changing their platforms and reaching a higher level of intelligence, true 'artificial intelligence' or 'synthetic intelligence' **_

_**A machinos in appereance are not different than other species, they mingle, they learn, they adapt, learning all they can from other species, they only true way to identify a machinos is for their eyes, usually glowing eyes with four circles around the irises, something all machinos share and refuse to erase.**_

* * *

_well there you go, another chapter gone and gone, I hope youy liked the way I took the story at this point, and of course the Codex as well, somethign people complained about was that some terms were not know to them, and they racked their heads figuring out what the helll some terms meant, well the codex maxima is the solution, it will include entries not only of the current story, but of the other stories as time advance, so I hope you like it._

_so there is no more for me to do here, just read, review and read again, if possible read my other stories to those new in this, read it in order of course, firts Naruto the maelstrom, then Danny the tsunami and last ichigo the inferno so you cna understand it a little better, you'll thank me, or not._

_Anyway i'm off to make more chapter, wish me luck, good days to you all, peace!_


	3. 2: Warrior within

**Hello faithful readers, it is I, Hypn0s, coming with you all with another delivery of rayearth goodness in the shape of Sakura kicking ass!**

**The first chapter was well recieved, and I want to personally thank zerodragon for his suggestion, hasn't been for him I would had never realized that some of my oldest readers had no idea that I had already posted Sakura The Pillar, kudos dude, or dudette.**

**Now as the author rant is over, let's begin the next chapter shall we? oh one last autheor rant...**

**THEY KNEW IT, THEY KNEW IT, OBITO LIVES AND NO ONE BELIEVED THEM!**

**now onto the show.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 2: WARRIOR WITHIN**

"_Oh come on!"_

_Her gaze was focused on some sort of futuristic looking chest table, her pieces where on a glowing green neon color, the few she had, the other ones were on an orange neon, many more than she had._

"_You said you never played this before!" she exclaimed hotly, her gaze falling to a boy of her age, while his face was blurred by something, she didn't knew what, she could easily distinguish orange and yellow._

"_Well I lied" the obviously masculine, but childish voice said to her, or better said taunted to her._

"_Of course, you always lie when facing someone, what was how you said it" she riposted as she moved a pawn a square forward._

"_Ninjas cheats on fights, always" he reminded, placing what seemed the queen and taking her knight away._

"_It also helps that ginger kid taught you when that specialist cleaned the floor with you"_

"_Oi! She didn't beat me, I let her win"_

"_Rrrriiiiight"_

"_Besides you know if we had been betting something I would have whooped her ass all over the deck, even if I didn't knew the game at all"_

"_Uh-huh"_

_The silence that fell over them lasted little than two seconds when suddenly her vision shook and the pieces, board, she and the kid were flying away, everywhere._

"…_The hell was that!?"_

"_Don't know…we got hit, I thought this ship was cloaked"_

"_Cloaked my butt, let's go to the bridge and see what's going…"_

_**BOOM!**_

Biting a gasp of surprise, Sakura once again sat in panic out of her bed, bringing a gloved hand to her damped forehead, the dream had not been as intense as the first one she had before her 'near death experience' besides the last part where she felt an explosion, and actually heard…

**BOOM!**

'eeping' in surprise, Sakura looked to her side, where her TV and game-station was, seeing it turn on, and Kero playing, as usual, it bogged her how in his tiny frame he could play with an ease that was just scary, and to add with the online versions, he was literally proving everyone he was the best, thankfully he was using his profile instead of hers, her profile, which she used once a month.

"Kero-chan, play a little lower, dad is gonna come over" Sakura stated, slumping to her bed again.

"Your dad left an hour ago, I heard him say something to your brother about an emergency meeting at the college" Kero said, making Sakura click her teeth.

"Not odd, next semester is just on the corner, they are already working on the budgets and teacher contracts, dad is gonna come stressed" Sakura said.

"Why you said that OH YEAH SUCK MY COMBO!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, "Because those meetings are like eight hour long, non-stop, the dean is a slave driver and hates the guts of my dad, don't know why" Sakura said, seeing how Kero tore another unfortunate guy who dared to play against him, online, with all the lag, or lack of one, with such a clean connection the players didn't need to actually compensate for the lag between control command and the character taking the order.

"Why they don't change him?" Kero asked.

"The dean is also the son of the guy who helped fund the college, despite the fact he is like fifty years old and his old man is already dead, his word carries weight" Sakura mumbled, slowly blinking and looking at the ceiling.

"…And Toya?" Sakura said, "Must remind you that he doesn't know about you, or me using the cards, not that I want him to learn" Sakura added.

"He left as well, just five minutes ago, work he said to your dad, got to make up for the time he lost while you were on the hospital" Kero said, finalizing yet another player, this one didn't last the minute Sakura noted.

"I got the house to me again…meh" Sakura said with a groan, making Kero raise an eyebrow.

"Is there a problem Sakura-chan?" Kero asked, not turning of his video-game.

"Sans the fact my roller-skates got totaled in the accident, I'm grounded because dad is freaking out every time a car passes by, my brother actually took all my money and stashed it on his room, which I might add I can't enter without ripping the door or bringing the wall down because he fears I might break my dad ban and buy me a pair of brand new roller-skates, which I use for my now non-existent job because dad quit me out of it and also use to make my way to school, which starts in three weeks and I'm stir crazy?" Sakura answered with a question, much to Kero's shock, "I'm peachy Kero ugh" Sakura snapped, bringing her head to the pillow, then slamming her face to it, several times over, then biting it, letting a groan of frustration while at it.

"…You think if I let the cards go wild again I can capture them in three weeks?"

"Sakura-chan!"

Sakura let out a small smirk out of her lips, obviously unnatural on her usual sweet smile she always plasters on her lips, but it conveyed the message to Kero.

"…I did think of that" Sakura added with a smile, making Kero sigh, exiting the lobby on the game and then flying to her, landing in front of her face.

"You're just bored, just hang on three more weeks, 21 days and you'll be in school" Kero said.

"And back to monotony, the same faces, the same classes, the same routine over, and over and over again until I reach spring break, rest and do it again, rinse a repeat over and over and over again, and ugh" Sakura mulled over.

"I see your problem" Kero said, crossing his little arms over.

"Really? Then enlighten me oh mighty guardian of the Sakura cards, I really hope you don't fall asleep while guarding the book…again" Sakura snapped.

"…You're an adrenaline junkie"

"WHAT?" Sakura all but snapped, rising up angrily and looking at Kero with angry eyes, "I am not addicted to danger!" Sakura snapped.

"Then explain to me why you are stirring crazy now, you're just twelve, thirteen next year, you kids should be overflowing with energy, but you are actually not, you're bored" Kero said.

"Of course I'm bored, I have nothing to do here but sit in my bed and watch you wipe the floor with noobs" Sakura said, huffing.

"What about your friends Sakura-chan, can't you call one of them and ask them to come home and pay with you, plan a hangout, I doubt your dad will have to figure out that you were gone all day, or two hours" Kero said.

"Tomoyo is with her mother on a parade back in Praga, most of my classmates are outside Tomoeda visiting their families or getting awesome tans or cooking themselves like lobsters, my boyfriend is on the other side of the world in some sort of training with his whole clan, and was able to call me to tell me that two weeks ago, I'm the only girl of my age, perhaps the only kid on the whole town that is not outside Tomoeda, which is now invaded by college students on vacations and X-gamers either looking thrills or working to pay their stay here because their parents are filthy rich but won't spend a penny because is not college related, so yes, I'm alone, and no, I'm not playing video-games with you, I suck at them remember, I didn't made it pass the first level of Puk-man, and that game is fifty years old, basic even for babies" Sakura said with a pout.

"Sheez, for the mistress of cards you surely don't know how to use the cards when you need them" Kero said as he went back to his video-game.

Sakura was about to snap at him until it hit her, rather hard, she was the holder of fifty-three powerful cards, each one made for a specific task, a specific goal, either combat, defense, escape, or mere pranks and chores, each card was made for that purpose, with the exception of The Hope, the card she had created, and she was still figuring out how to use.

As she went to her dresser and pulled her book, with the cards inside, she began to brainstorm what to use to get inside Toya's room, and into her money, no one, no force in this universe, or another will stop Sakura Kinomoto, or another girl from getting their hard-earned cash and spending it on a well deserved stress relief day, no force!

As she made it to the door of her brother's room, she had already the card she needed ready, the book floating to her side, she paid no mind in this, after all this was a feature of the book Kero seemed to forget to tell her.

"Okay, here we go" she said, her magic staff already out, in her gloved hand the one card she needed.

"The Through!" with a flourish she called the power of the card, instantly the card vanished, enveloping Sakura in a pink-ish like aura of energy, becoming semi-transparent once the power of the card settles within her.

With a sigh she made her way through the door, bypassing the wood with ease, she knew that the power of the card was equal to the thickness of the object she wanted to pass trough and her magical energy, meaning the thicker it was, the more energy she needed to pass onto.

This was not the case, she passed easily the door, and after dismissing the power of the card so she could look well the place, within minutes she had looked all over the room, finding, much to her annoyance that her brother had placed all her hard-earned cash under his bed, easy task to take it, she was annoyed because it seemed he never dusted under his bed, and she got more than her share of dust-bunnies.

Meanwhile Kero waited until Sakura emerged back to the room, he wasn't disappointed when she came outside, her hair sporting several dust-balls attached to her hair.

"If I didn't want to take a shower, now I have a reason to" Sakura muttered, placing the box with her money and the Sakura book on the counter, then pulling everything she needed to dress, and making her way to the bathroom, "I'll make omelets today Kero-chan, make sure you're on the table when I leave the bathroom or no breakfast to you" she stated sternly, she wasn't in the mood to drag Kero out of her room and his game just to eat.

"Okay Sakura-chan, take your time on the shower"

"Oh I will, I need to take a lot of dust out of my hair and stress out of my body"

With that said she stalked away, leaving Kero with the book, the cards and his games.

"…She grew fast" he said to one in particular, or would look like that if it wasn't for The Hope hovering behind him.

"Soon none of you will need the book to reside" The Hope said nothing, as it was a card and cards can't speak.

"I'm so proud of her…and so sad, she doesn't know what will come ahead now" he added, the card slightly tilted to one side.

"I can't tell her, I won't, this is something she must find on her own" the card seemed to want to slap him on the back of his chibi like head.

"Of course I know what her current dreams entails, you all be with her, I won't" Kero said softly, looking at the screen of the TV, not at the fifty-three Sakura cards floating behind him, "There is no need for a guardian of the cards if these begin to change as she is" Kero added sadly, then slightly smirked as The Dark and The Light began to chastise him, or something like that.

"You're all changing, the rims of your card forms are gaining another color, Sakura's magic just…made it up to a level not even Master Clow was able before" Kero mussed, "I guess there are perks of becoming a knight of Crystalia…I just wished she didn't had to die to get them"

* * *

After a nice wash and dressing for a new day, and eating, you can't forget eating, Sakura was ready to start the day as a whole, she had a plan, get her job back, regardless of her dad's decision, get new roller-skates, no way she is walking to school when she can roll to school, get new clothes, her last pair was now remains on some biohazard bucket after the accident, maybe get a cellphone, everyone seemed to have one but her.

Then of course she would have fun, spend as much time as humanly possible outside, because she knew, no, felt that she wouldn't be able to enjoy this kind of freedom for some time.

Either she would be on another adventure all over Tomoeda or her dad would ground her till the end of times, she didn't know which outcome was worse.

Once done she began to make some sweets for Kero, she knew Kero would want to go, but his games were important to him, so she would not bother him.

She was about to leave the house when the telephone began to ring, stopping her dead on her tracks, biting a groan of frustration for this event, Sakura returned and answered the phone.

"Kinomoto residence, Sakura speaking" Sakura answered.

"_Sakura-chan, is me, Syaoran"_

"Li-kun!" the voice of her boyfriend made Sakura forget about her early frustration, after all it was Li, he somewhat always made things go well.

"_I heard about the accident you had, sorry if I just called, but getting a signal on a forest, far away of civilization is kinda hard, I had to wait until we made it to a town"_ Li replied on the other side of the line.

"How is your…what are you doing there again?" Sakura asked in mock forgetfulness.

"_Don't even start Sakura-chan, I know you well enough to see your trying to avoid the question…so, how are you?"_

Sakura let out a long sigh, "I'm fine Li, I left the hospital two days ago, dad pulled me out of my dream job and only source of entertainment and oh yeah, been toying with the idea of unleashing the Sakura Cards and see if I can catch them all in three weeks"

There was an awkward silence on the other side of the line, for over five seconds.

"_Basically you're bored"_ Syaoran eloquently put.

"To put it in dumb terms, I'm bored out of my soul I can't stand being idle, I just can't, so I'm planning a little escape for myself, this day is just for me, consequences be dammed" she said with a smile.

"_He-he, who are you and what have you done with my girlfriend?"_ Syaoran playfully asked.

"She not around, leave the message after the beep" she toyed back.

"_Okay, tell her I love her as usual, would do anything for her, and me and Meiling are going back to Tomoeda for the duration of the school terms, emphasis on elementary and secondary" _

Sakura let out a squeal of delight after hearing that, those were excellent news, better than better.

"_Oh. Also my mom and sisters are moving to Tomoeda, so tell Tomoyo that her family will have competence on the big house department"_ Sakura giggled at that, not believing what was going now.

"That's nice Li-kun" Sakura said with a smile.

"_On a serious note however" _as soon the joy she had heard on her boyfriend's voice was gone in a second, replaced by the Li she met first, the cold, methodical, obsessed with the Clow Cards Li, she hated that one.

"_Sakura-chan, have you noticed something odd…strange occurrences…odd people around"_

Sakura toyed with the idea of telling Li about her near death experience, about the rifle she had on her room, the very same that had shot her, about those two armored individuals and the dreams, not to mention the glove she could not remove.

"No" she lied, "Why? Has something happened? Please tell me is not another ghost hell-bent on getting even with Clow Reed" she begged.

"_I wish it was that simple, mother recently got news of some sort of group, she is not sure who they are, or what they truly want, but she doesn't want to take risks, especially when that group is focusing on a city containing some of the most powerful magical artifacts in the know world"_

"The cards? They can't be that powerful, are they?" Sakura asked.

"_Fifty-two cards with varied tasks and powers, all balanced by a card that could easily wipe out a city in a blink, so yes, they are that powerful Sakura-chan and you now own them"_

"Making me a target, great" Sakura muttered with distaste, "If you wanted to sour my day Li-kun, well mission accomplished" she added.

"_Is not that Sakura-chan, is just that I'm worried, these guys…according to some stories I heard from my sisters…they are very fond of doing anything to get their prize, if you get in the way…please promise me you'll be careful"_ Syaoran said worriedly on the other side of the line.

Sakura's heart softened in the way Syaoran worried for her, it made her happy, really happy.

"I will Li-kun, don't you worry, I'll be fine, I promise" Sakura said kindly.

"_I hope so Sakura-chan, see you in two weeks, I love you"_

"Love you too" she said as the call ended, hanging the phone, Sakura took a deep breath, she was both touched and somewhat annoyed for the call, touched because her boyfriend was worried about her, and annoyed because he was stating the obvious on her life, it seemed every month someone wanted to kill her or wound her, it had become some sort of tradition.

With a sigh she made her way towards the door leading outside her home, "Okay Kero-chan I'm leaving, don't peek outside, I left sweets in the cupboard as usual, coming back late!" closing it immediately after saying that.

When she was on the corner of the street, the phone on her home began to ring.

* * *

"Boooossss!"

"WHAT!?"

"Sakura-sama's back"

"WHAT!"

The sight that greeted Sakura was quite surprising to say the least, Big T; her former boss was as surprised as the rest of the workforce at Sakura's presence.

"Star struck?" Big T muttered, his dark face twisted in a mockery of worry and disbelieve, seeing one of his former couriers back, looking as she was never involved in a car accident.

"Yeah boss, I'm back, and I want my job back" Sakura said, slowly crossing her arms over her chest, looking at the man that was eight times her weight and five times her height.

"Is that so" Big T said, slowly running a hand over his blond goatee, "Last I heard you quit the job for injuries" he said.

"That's dad's reasoning, I'm fine, he's just being overprotective" Sakura snapped sharply, surprising everyone, it seemed she wasn't so into the idea of giving her job because of some 'bruises' as she was putting it.

"You got hit by a truck" Big T summarized, as it explained everything, "You were on a hospital for a week, two days on a coma, most of your body was totaled according to your dad and the docs there when I went to visit a day later, hell star struck I visited you, you were like a mummy, all bandages" Big T added, "Your rollers got totaled as well" he finished.

"I got better" Sakura fought back, "And I'm going to buy myself a new pair of rollers, no way I'm going to school on foot" she added, then let out a sigh, "Listen boss, I like the job, dad's just being…well a dad, overprotective on his little princess, he might not say it, but I'm his life, I can't blame him for being overprotective, but I can't allow him to manage my life every time, I am fine, I can take care of myself, I just want another chance" Sakura said.

Big T simply gave her a once over, looking for any sign of her forcing her body to work under duress, he saw plenty of that on prison.

He saw none.

"(Sigh) what about your old man?" he asked.

"I'll talk him over, he'll see reason if I explain him, I just can't remain idle, especially considering that flashlight does still want you down, you need your best courier for the job" Sakura said with a small smile, making Big T smirk.

"Good said Star struck, you start on Wednesday" he simply said, making Sakura smile widely, nodding, then turning and hugging the closest person around, hard.

That person turned to be one of the teenagers on the job, and he swore Sakura had the hug of the dead, he nearly felt his bones cracks under the hug.

"I'll get my skates ready for Wednesday, see you around boss!" she called, running away and leaving a smirking Big T and a gasping teen.

"Was she really hit by a truck?" the teen asked, rubbing his ribs.

"Yeah…saw her myself, she looked horrible, but the truck got the worse part" Big T said, "Go to Akane, let her know Sakura's returning, let her know we need Sakura's old gear prepped up…and that tracking software she was working on to be rigger on her gear, I'll be dammed what happened to her happens again"

"Yes sir…but off the record…I'll think she will be pissed if she finds out"

* * *

Well, she had her job back, which was good, now for phase two, clothes, cellphone and a new set of wheels.

True she had one; Tomoyo had got her, Li, Meiling and herself cellphones that helped them communicate during the hunt of the cards and during Erriol's tests.

Unfortunately her cellphone, along her elbow and kneepads, her roller-skates and the clothes she had on that day, alongside the vest and comm. Gear she had on was all but totaled when she met a truck head on, nothing of her belongings of that day, including paying factures survived the crash.

Of course her dad, ever in his loving and overprotective self, as any father after seeing their daughter or son on a hospital bed, on a two day coma and having more bandages on their bodies than most mummies on the desert, decided that the only way to protect her was to basically turn her into a hermit, killing her social life and letting her going to school and nowhere else.

"Well first dead than that" she bowed, then blinked and shook her head.

Ever since the accident she had these weird mood swings, sometimes is her, but at the same time is not her at all, her little outburst with the assassin two days ago was prime example of that, everyone knew she wasn't violent at all, in fact she was the most placid, pacifist soul around, the very few times she show violence where out of fear, like with the Fight card, it wasn't intentional at all the fact she had slammed her baton infused with the Power, to a normal person that blow would have caused a severe fracture to the skull, she spend a full hour apologizing to the Fight who had tried to stay down her apologies.

But what she had done two days ago, it hadn't been fear, it had been anger, unadultered anger, rage fueled her chase, she had jumped and crushed a car with her petit weight alone, like nothing, like stepping on a can, she had tackled the man that had tried and on some point succeeded in killing her, asked him a simple question, why? His answer basically pissed her worse than before, fueling some foreign force that allowed her to toss him towards and trough a wall with the ease of tossing a feather pillow.

It was startling to her, she was becoming strong, cautious, developing some sort of vicious streak of whatever the hell it was, determined, she knew the old her would never go against her father wishes, but a part of her told her that it was her decision in the end, and if she wanted it, there was no force on this or another world that could actually stop her.

That strange determination, one that simply flooded her system and made her think, no, believe she could do anything, everything if she put her mind into it made her…giddy, it was invigorating, before she had captured the Clow cards because it was her duty, and no one else was up to the task at hand, Li had failed incredibly at Yue's judgment, and she had, just barely passed it, maybe because she lacked self-determination, the drive to go onward, even at the face of certain doom and fear, after all during the hunt of the Shadow card she freaked out.

She also felt…anger, rage, patience, things she knew she never had before, she wasn't someone easy to anger, someone who would rave in rage, or being patient, paramount reason she became a Card Captor in the first place, but all these was overwhelming, resolve like steel, determination like stone, passion like fire, she didn't where all this came from…but she liked it.

Knowing that this would backfire to her, and it would, she decided that she would enjoy the rest of the day, because she would be so grounded after this.

Within minutes, after boarding a bus, she reached her destination, Tomoeda sport center and mall.

Now Tomoeda is an oddity among other cities, all crisp, clean, so…white that it almost hurts to see it, common crooks don't even make it to Tomoeda because the city is so pure looking that, according to some urban myths, an average crook would actually outstand for their bad intentions, AKA robbing, still it doesn't means that Tomoeda is without their black sheeps.

Everyone agrees that Big T's courier shop is one of the black sheeps, considering the fact it hold a very unorthodox way to transport merchandise and the couriers who mostly don't pass the age of twenty.

But the original black sheep of Tomoeda shops was in fact this one, Sports Mall for the awesome and adrenaline junkies, that's the name.

The mall was made fifty years ago, it started as every shop, a small shop with just a handful of loyal shoppers and a single shopkeeper, a shop that sold sport clothes and sport elements of all kind, balls, bicycles, roller-skates, anything that was remotely related to sport was sold there at that time, the owner gained little from the sales, but he had enough to pay for the shop and keep himself and his family afloat.

That chanced twenty years after the inauguration, when Tomoeda was discovered by extreme sport enthusiastic, seeing the potential of Tomoeda untouched cliffs, sharp turns and very long, smooth streets and long falls on streets, so he began to go there every year, becoming eventually a loyal customer to the shop, eventually his presence brought more extreme sports enthusiastic individuals, whole groups of different parts of the world, all on college or already graduated, every summer and spring Tomoeda was invaded by these 'misfits' as some puritans said once, and considering most of them have tattoos, piercings and wear very odd clothes, or revealing in the case of girls, the shop reinvented itself as the current version, a massive hub for sport enthusiasts and a place where the most puritan members of society can wrinkle their nose upon seeing the young 'wasting their time' as they put it.

This wasn't a place for a little girl like her, this place was different from fifty years ago, for now it was like a plaza, besides clothes and sport articles, it had now a tattooist, a natural juice bar, a parking lot which was used for street hockey, hell they even had a wall for escalation.

This was a place that no kid ventures alone without their parents during vacations, if they are still on Tomoeda, it seems most adults take their children out of Tomoeda during vacations, Sakura might had a slight idea as off why.

They plaza itself, dominated by a large fountain in which several teens were seated, were hearing loud music, it was either techno, Hip-Hop or plain rock, all the highest volume setting, some were talking and laughing loudly, others were making out with their significant others for the summer, the most active were working on either their bikes or skateboards, a small group was actively putting a trick show in front of those seated.

The fact that every single person there had very colorful tattoos on their bodies, many piercings on their skin, men were missing their shirt, exposing chiseled torsos and girls had such tight clothes that it was nigh indecent might give her a clue as of why no adult wanted to bring kids here during vacations.

Sakura was perhaps the only child to ever set foot on this 'hostile' place, alone…and she liked it.

She was mindful of the sudden stares several teens were giving her, she likewise was giving everyone an eyeful, trying to memorize the place fully, she liked the place, she wanted to see what might it offer while on vacations.

She even blinked when she saw the parodied like nerd like kid doing homework, surely for college, near him was perhaps the best specimen of female anatomy and why tight clothes, especially tight sport bras should be wore under baggy clothes, the poor nerdy kid was about to spontaneously combust if the blush he had on his face was of any indication, and the girl was shamelessly flirting with the kid, playing with his hair and clothes.

With a sigh she made her way to the closest clothing store, there were at least five of them in the mall, but she would not shop, not yet, she would window shop first, to see what would catch her eyes first.

_**Two hours later…**_

Several teenagers just looked at the bizarre scene with amusement; they all knew that, they were all victims of the same woman when they make it there.

Now here it was, a little girl that came in with a cute dress, came out with the most outrageous looking clothes.

Clad in a baggy T-shirt that seemed to once was white, but someone had the bright idea of tossing it to the laundry alongside with every know color clothes, and the result was this, a somewhat uniform mixture of colors that if you stared too much would make you dizzy, not to mention the equally baggy short cargo pants that barely made it to her knees, the coffee like sneakers on her feet and the backwards red hat over her head complemented the look alongside a small set of tinted glasses resting on her face.

Sakura liked it immediately, it was different from what she usually wears, and Tomoyo would have fainted upon seeing her, hands down.

Everyone also noticed the bags on her hands, one surely holding her old clothes, the other holding surely, even more odd clothes to her.

If she wanted an extreme change, well mission accomplished, from the cute girl up to the somewhat cool looking girl only those who knew her would really be shocked by the transformation.

And it seemed it was not over, because she immediately made her way towards the sport gear shop, nicknamed 'the chop shop' for honest reasons of course.

Any kind of broken piece of sport gear, from bikes to kneepads ended there, to be chopped apart and put again into something, of course most of the raw material was produced by the many new visitors that dared to tame the many cliffs, rocky roads and many natural and artificial obstacles that made Tomoeda a haven for many extreme sport enthusiasts.

She of course entered, then emerged out of the store half an hour later, now rolling on a brand new set of roller-skates, humming a happy song under her breath as she rolled away, eyes closed.

Now everyone knew that rolling around with your eyes closed is an assured accident, hands down, especially with her hands occupied with bags, no matter the nature of the contents.

So when she actually rolled into an empty pool that many skaters used daily for their stuns, disappearing on it on the disbelieving eyes of the teens, she effortlessly rolled her way around, dodging skaters with ease, even pulling a 360 up the ledge, landing outside the pool and on her feet, not her butt, her feet, and continued to roll away, a smile on her face.

She spend a quarter of her total money to update her clothes, leaving a bunch of hardened teenager hardcore college enthusiasts of sports with their jaws on the ground, priceless.

Of course her little performance caught the attention of people, the kind of people who had their eyes on her long before she decided to let her inner rebel out, but her little act, albeit born out of a whim and a need to simply show off, had gathered their attention once more.

This time, however, they were not only observing, they were already on the move.

* * *

It was midday when she arrived back home, on one hand she held all her clothes, both old and new, on the other she held the groceries for her lunch and family dinner, she knew her dad and Toya would come later in the night, tired and hungry, she wouldn't be able to keep their food warm, well she could, either The Firey or the microwave, the fact was that she would eat alone today, well not so, with Kero around it becomes irrelevant.

In any case she would still need to whip something for her dad and Toya, even if they come late they will come hungry, and the first place they will arrive will not be her room to see if she is still there, but the kitchen to see what she cooked, she learned all she knew of her dad, but she had long surpassed him on the breakfast and dinner area, lunch is still a weak point for her.

Entering her home she immediately dropped her bags to the floor, losing the roller-skates of her feet, "Tadaima!" she called, letting the skates on one side of the wall, and picking the bags again, "Kero-chan, I brought lunch, I'll whip something special just for the two of us" she said, making it to the kitchen and placing the grocery bag on the counter.

"Kero-chan, Kero-chan!" Sakura called, making her way to her room, just stopping for a second to see the telephone and the answering machine, blinking, indicating a number of messages, with a sigh she pressed the button and cranked the volume up to max.

"**You got three new messages"**

"Li-kun" Sakura sighed, it had to be of Syaoran, as he was the only one to call her at all.

"**Message one…Sakura-san, it is me Motaro"**

Sakura perked up at the voice of one of Toya's supervisor on his work.

"**Uh, oh, I don't know how to put this…is your brother home?" ** that stopped Sakura from getting to her room, **"He hasn't arrived at all, his bicycle is not parked on the usual spot, the boss is raving about lacking personnel and she is looking for someone to take it on, if you see your brother tell him to get his butt here, now, I can't cover for him all day long…well I can but you know how much he hates owing someone…end message one"**

Sakura slowly blinked, letting the clothes bag on the front of her room, not caring as of why there were no sounds of virtual combat emanating out of her room or why Kero wasn't bolstering his many victories.

"**Message two starts…Kinomoto, where the hell is your father!?" **Sakura was already in front of the phone, looking at the answering machine and hearing the voice of the dean of the college, the very angry dean of the college her father worked, **"Your father hasn't showed his face in a whole day, reunion started over three hours ago, he hasn't show up, security hasn't seen hair or hide of him or his car…where is he? He has never been late to a meeting in his life…you seem him let him know to come to my office to have a chat, not to fire him, but to point out the need of punctuality, is his first 'offense' I hope it doesn't happen again…end message two"**

Sakura leaned onward, looking at the machine in something akin to horror, never her father and brother had missed…anything, punctuality was something they had intricate in their blood, they could be an hour or a half earlier to a meeting, unlike her who always make it to the nick of time.

"**Message three starts…Sakura, Sakura! It's me Li! You got to get your family out of Tomoeda now!"** panic was palpable on her boyfriend's voice, the message showed he had called at least two hours after the last call, which was already worrisome.

"**It's them…God Sakura you got to leave now, take your dad and your brother, Kero, Yue and the cards outside Tomoeda, to the airport, my mom already send someone to pick you all up, you need to get out, you're in grave danger, leave NOW!"**

Sakura was already worried by the two messages, the last one was too much for her, in less than a second she was on the stairs basically skipping three steps as much as her legs allowed her, then reaching her closed room, she didn't care or wondered how the hell she was able to take down a door a grown up man needs to take down with impulse and mass, things she lacks.

What she saw chilled her to the bone.

The drawer where she kept the Sakura Cards and the book was open, more like broken open, Kero's console, and by extend hers was damaged, there was some sort of hole in the middle of it, made by what she couldn't tell, the strange puddle of water formed under the console did little to say otherwise, there were obvious signs of fight, claw marks, scorch marks, even some walls had holes punched in them.

"…Kero-chan?" Sakura asked attentively.

"He is indisposed" the moment she turned around to see the source of the voice, she felt her nerves blaze in pain, gritting her pain, Sakura bit the need to scream, the pain ended as soon as it began, making her meet the ground in pain and panting.

"So, this is the mighty Card Captor? The successor of Clow Reed? Not so impressive" Sakura eyes slightly fluttered open, seeing a pair of high-designers heels in front of her, and some very expensive pedicure.

It seemed the silence dragged a whole day for Sakura, she was damn sure the other figure, a woman by the looks of her legs, was actually enjoying this.

"You know…your brother and dad actually fought back"

Sakura eyes snapped wide open, emotions ran rampant within her, alien emotions that she didn't knew at all, bubbling like water on a kettle, slowly boiling, boiling, and boiling until it reached the top.

"And that yellow thing, Kerberos was it? Not so much when you shock it"

The boiling water on Sakura's temper went over the top and spilled out.

Sakura was basically seeing red when she screamed; all she remembered where the noisiest five seconds of her life and the scream of utter rage she let out of her mouth ahs she rose like a lion and attacked.

When she recovered her senses, she saw that she had added more damage to her already damaged room, and that the woman who had attacked her and had never seen her face was now embedded on her ceiling, her waist and legs being the only thing visible of her at the moment, dangling like a damaged piñata.

Sakura wasted no time in wondering how the hell that woman ended up in her ceiling, and immediately bolted out of her room, basically jumping down the stairs up to the first floor, landing with a hard 'thud' that cracked the wood on her feet with ease, she didn't care, she continued running away, easily making it to the main entrance of her home.

She was in such a rush to leave that she didn't put shoes at all; she reached for the door, in her socks…

**BOOM!**

Only to be pushed away when something was slammed to her stomach, alongside a lot of splinters and pieces of the now broken main door, sending her sliding on the ground, stopping on the wall.

"Itai" she moaned, rubbing her head in pain, slowly standing up, only to gasp in pain when something began to coil on her neck, slowly chocking her.

She grasped whatever was holding her, squeezing hard, whatever was holding her cracked clean, making her open her eyes, what she saw surprised her, it was a humanoid figure, that was certain, the rest not so much, dressed in a black trench coat with a fedora hat covering the head and black shades covering the eyes, to the casual observer it would be a normal person, a six foot tall normal man, but on closer inspection the person was anything but, to start, the skin was brown clay, and the body as well.

Which brought the subject as of why she heard something crack? that something turned to be the forearm of the thing, which she had crushed to dust with her petit hands.

Being dropped on the ground was not something on her plans of course, being free was, seeing that whatever had attacked was now staring at the now severed forearm, Sakura seized the chance, she had seen the move hundreds of times thanks to Kero and his videogames, she kneeled, brought her right fist down, then jumped, bringing her fist on a vicious uppercut to the thing's stomach, instead of flying away however, Sakura's punch easily broke the thing in two, exposing a lot of…dirt and rock parts coming out of the two separated parts.

Sakura stared at the thing, then at her right fist in something akin to shock, "I didn't…even used the cards" she said in slight shock, and it wasn't for nothing, the thing was massive, the was small, it was illogical that a girl of her size would be able to punch something made out of rocks in two.

Shacking those thoughts for later, Sakura made a break for the door, having just enough time to grab the roller-skates and hastily putting them on, now with them on she began to roll away, being aware that someone, or rather group were following her, but they were on foot, she was rolling, she was able to leave them on the dust in two minutes, it also helped that she knew Tomoeda better than anyone else.

As she kept rolling away, she stopped on Penguin Park, slowly taking deep intakes of breath, all what happened back at her home, it was…too much to take, like a zombie, she made her way to a bench, there she collapsed.

Her family was in hands of someone, she didn't knew who, Kero was captured as well, surely Yue as well, they seemed to not do half a job, the cards, all of them were taken of her possession, she knew that the cards would not answer to anyone's command unless she let actually allows it, which brings the subject of her family as leverage, they needed something to actually gain an edge over her, she can be stubborn as a mule, but when her family is on the line…

"Kami…gotta be more careful for what I wish for" she muttered, she wanted a break of the monotony, sure, but this, this was too much, one thing is her, other her family.

"_I need to find them"_ she thought, but another thought came as soon that one came, _"But how? I have no cards, no special powers no…wait" _Sakura stopped her mental worry altogether, looking at her gloved left hand, ever since she got shot, no, ever since she got the glove she had sporadic burst of power, power that wasn't tied to the cards, even before, when he had that feeling of someone following her it had been that guy all along, if only…

"_**Think…it will happen…"**_

Sakura blinked, not knowing where that voice had come from, but it had a point, if she could will it, it could happen…or…

Five minutes later, much against her common sense, Sakura was back home, or far away of it, in a spot she knew she could observe easily, and not be caught quite the same, there she saw what she wanted, two of those massive guys were carrying the girl that somehow had ended in her ceiling, alongside someone else, a teenager, looking at the woman with disapproval, more like disgust, just like Li saw her the first time, long before they even became friends and even more.

With a plan in hand, Sakura let the group walk away to a corner, missing them entirely, but somehow she felt she hadn't miss them, in fact she knew they were still walking, and were being cautious.

She didn't mind this, slowly she followed them, a determined look on her face, she would get her family back, her cards back, her guardians back, and whoever stood in her way would pay!

* * *

His head hurt, a lot, and that is saying something, all things considering that his body felt in fire.

Fujitaka Kinomoto slowly groaned, as even his face hurt him, blinking was less painful, but it still hurt, thankfully the pain was slowly dying out, but not the discomfort of what had happened to him.

Looking around, he saw his son Toya, laying on his back as well, awaken and dress for his day at work, just like him, he found odd that Sakura's favorite plushy toy, Kero-chan was laying as well on the ground with them…

"Ugh…and I was about to hit the 100 combo"

The favorite plushy of his daughter that just talked.

"Kero…shut up, my dad is on your left" his son said in his obvious disdain tone of voice, laced with pain.

"He is as out-cold as you were ten minutes ago" the plushy replied.

"Doesn't mean he won't recover consciousness as well" his son countered, Fujitaka thought that his son was actually a ventriloquist, if it wasn't for the fact that the plushy lips were actually moving.

"You recovered this fast because of your latent magic power, which by the way how you recovered it? Didn't you gave it to Yue to save him?" the doll asked.

"…I don't know, you're the magic expert, you tell me" his son fought back.

"No, Clow WAS the magic expert, I am just one of his many creations, but if I had to wager, I guess you just gave a very significant portion of your power to him, so much that I felt it was actually gone, but magic cannot be given wholly, especially if it inherited, it doesn't work like that you know, to actually give all your magic involves a ritual in the painless way and a very painful and gruesome death in the other way" the plushy spoke.

"Is that so?" his son said, he seemed to think something for a second, "Sakura…was home? When it happened?" Fujitaka wanted to know too.

"Nah, finally puberty hit her, more specifically her rebellious stage, she jacked you up, got her job back and maybe bought some clothes, she was out when all this happened, as far as I know she doesn't know, but will suspect when she doesn't see me in front of a TV" the plushy said.

"She what?" his son said in a shocked and horrified tone.

"She jacked you up, used The Through to get into your room and get her money back" the plushy said with a mocking tone.

"She got…into my room…no one gets into my room…no one…not even dad…I'm going to kill her, slowly…I'm going to enjoy it"

"What with you teenagers and your rooms? Is just four walls"

"Is the principle of the matter, it's my room, mine, mine alone, no one gets in without my permission"

"She did"

Toya settled for glaring at the plushy, in his glare he noted that his dad was conscious…and surely heard everything.

"…How much did you heard dad?" the plushy seemed to perk up at that, actually turning its tiny head to him, and looking at him, shocked.

"…from the 100 combo an on" Fujitaka replied simply, looking at his son and the plushy with a bored, serious look.

"Tou-san…uh…for the record, Sakura doesn't know I know that she is a magical enhanced…something" Toya said.

"The proper term is magician…or enchantress, she used charmed artifacts for combat and daily chores…mostly chores…okay she uses her powers only for chores" Kero admitted.

"…That explains that much time she has in her hands when we return…the house is always clean" Fujitaka said, almost as an afterthought.

The silence carried on for some time, the eyes of the trio looking around the area they were, Fujitaka noted that they were on a warehouse, if the ceiling was anything to go by, also it was night thanks to the small windows letting them see the dark sky and stars shinning over them.

"Why they did this?" Toya asked, more like asked to Kero, the small plushy like creature shrugged painfully.

"Lots of reasons I think, I mean Sakura-chan holds now the most powerful magical artifacts in the world, hands down, not to mention that glove on her left hand…it emits magic that far surpasses the one of the cards combined…it is unreal" Kero said.

"The glove…the one she has been sporting all days? That glove? I thought it was a gift of her boss" Fujitaka said.

"No…that glove is pure, unnaturally strong magic, it's connected to ancient magic, more ancient than this world itself" Kero said, catching himself after realizing he was talking magic affairs with the father of the girl he swore to guard, and that up to this moment knew nothing about magic or the Clow cards.

"Ancient? Magic can be ancient?" Toya asked, obviously intrigued.

"Of course" Kero replied hotly, "Well, Clow did once explained to me, in very simple terms, and a diagram, and drawings, and a song, that magic is like wine, it gets better with time, that's why some of the greatest magicians to ever walk this world before Clow himself were either old enough to harness their magic to a pure raw level, or had a natural connection to ancient magic, like him" Kero replied.

"Okay, enough, please…let me…process everything" Fujitaka snapped, and it wasn't for nothing, the overload of information was too much to take, and he was still trying to process everything he had heard.

It took him a full minute to do so.

"My daughter…is some sort of magician…witch?"

"Well, the actual term to describe her would be enchantress, as she uses enchanted…I explained that before" Kero trailed off, "And for the record she is not just a magician, she is THE magician, the most powerful of them all, and trust me, there aren't too many of them nowadays, back in my day at least every family around had a magical familiar…man how many things have changed" Kero replied sadly.

"But…how?" Fujitaka asked, obviously shocked.

"Clow was able…to see the future in a way, he saw Sakura in one of those visions, well in many visions now that I remember, so he put two and two, before he died he passed the Clow Cards to Sakura, in a symbolic manner, symbolism is really something to take seriously in these cases, so when she found the book years after his death, well it was obvious what happened…what he didn't counted was me going to sleep for a long time and she actually activating one of the cards out of sheer will, The Windy to add" Kero said a little embarrassed, "Or maybe he KNEW I was going to go asleep and planned everything…uh that guy" he added in exasperation.

"Out of will alone, but she always uses the staff, or that kid Li uses his sword" Toya said, catching himself a little too late to realize what he had said.

"Syaoran Li is a magician as well?" Fujitaka asked/snapped.

"Yeah, in fact the Li family is directly related to Clow Reed, that's why in the very first months of the hunts of the cards he was downright hostile to Sakura-chan, but she won him in the end, just like she did with Yue…and speaking of him, where is he?" Kero asked, only to hear Toya sigh.

"Yukito left Tomoeda for a month vacation, two weeks ago, world trip or something, unlike you, he has two separated identities with different minds, odds are he doesn't know nothing about what's happening" Toya said, seeing how Kero groaned, and banged his head on the concrete.

"Dammit, Yue is rather powerful tonight, Moon's full tonight, he would tear the defenses down with a flick of his wrist" Kero said, looking at the warehouse ceiling, then suddenly perking up.

"…Sakura-chan's here" he suddenly said, making Toya and Fujitaka look at him oddly.

"She's here?" Fujitaka asked.

"How you know?" Toya asked.

"Sakura-chan magic changed a lot from the day of the accident, is more powerful, raw, I have been rather edgy to see her use one of the cards with such magic power at her fingertips, that makes her easy to target, if you are familiar with her magic signature…and she is just meters away" true to his prediction, Sakura was just meter away, on another room, just entering and scanning the area, it was then where she found her family, laying on the ground, slightly wounded, but fine.

To Fujitaka and Toya, seeing Sakura was a relieve, to Fujitaka seeing his little girl dress as a teenage punk made him wish he was unconscious, to Toya…

"…You went to Emy's wardrobe didn't you?" he asked with a smirk.

"How did you…no matter" Sakura said in an exasperated manner, approaching them with no caution…

"Stop Sakura-chan" Kero commanded, Sakura did so, more because the surprise of him talking when their dad was around made it even worse.

"Why?" she simply asked.

"There's a barrier around us, a powerful one, you as much touch it you get zapped like a bug" Kero replied, noting the lack of…anything magical on Sakura, besides the glove.

"Please tell me you have at least one card with you" Sakura smiled nervously at Kero, "Damn, didn't want to resort to this at this point but we have no choice, Sakura-chan, brush the crystal of your glove with your free hand" Kero commanded.

"Uh…why?" Sakura asked.

"Trust me on this Sakura-chan, as we stand we need all the help we need, that glove will provide, now do it"

Not knowing what would happen next, but knowing that Kero had never steer her wrong, Sakura did as told, what happened next shocked her completely; odd considering the things that had happened to her in her life.

In her hands, in a shower of literal sparks and yellow light, emerged a bō, a yellow bō staff, much to her utter surprise, at least 1.8 m long, in a circular design, what made Sakura stare at the weapon in her hand was the amount of star like engravings in it, of all possible designs were engraved in the staff, cute like stars to more intricate like engravings, it was there.

Sakura flicked the staff between her fingers, it was obviously bigger than her cheerleading baton and her star staff, not as long as her guardian staff, but it felt…more familiar, after all the sealing wand once belonged and was created by Clow Reed, it was his by right, the fact he modified it to her use made it less hers and more his.

This one however, it felt…hers, truly hers, like a part of her, it belonged to her, and it was hers by right.

"A soul construct" Kero breathed, breaking Sakura of her gaze of her new staff, "I never thought I would live to see one" he added.

"A what?" Sakura asked, more baffled by the fact Kero knew what the staff in her hands was.

"A weapon" a new voice cut in, making Sakura immediately take a defensive position with the staff in her hand, "The ultimate weapon, never to be broken away, chipped or cracked by any other weapon made by mortal hand, for it's the reflection of the wielder's soul, the most fitting weapon for an elemental chosen"

"Who are you!?" Sakura yelled, eyes canning around the dark place, "What do you want with me!?" she asked.

"…So you saw beyond…impressive"

"You took the cards and let someone in my home to wait and attack me…capture me maybe, and if that failed, use my family to lure me in…you're going to regret that" Sakura hissed, eyes narrowed and assuming a more hostile battle stance, Kero audibly gulped, he had never seen Sakura angry, at all, frustrated maybe, scared, a lot of times, freaked out as much as scared, happy also, but angry, downright angry, it was an alien feeling that he knew Sakura didn't knew, apparently one she just found out.

Then everyone heard a chuckle, it was a mocking one, one that made the already tense an angry Sakura to be even pushed on the edge, with a cry of utter rage she rushed in, dragging the staff to the ground and leaving a really scary gash on the concrete ground, the fact that the staff had no cutting edge made the scene even more surreal and scary.

That seemed to stop altogether when two shadows suddenly emerged on the flanks of Sakura, making the girl stop her charge, looking at the newcomers in surprise, this was a mistake she paid in full, she had left her guard wide open for her intended target to actually attack her, which he did.

When she realized of this it was already too late, her target was in front of her, an orb of pure purple energy on his hands, one ha flew out and impacted her right on the heart.

She tried to scream, she couldn't, she tried to stay on her feet, she couldn't, she tried to feel something in her body, she couldn't.

She tried to do anything, she simply couldn't.

* * *

The gasp of breath was to get as much air in her lungs as possible, the small yelp of pain that came out like a too much of a girly scream for her liking, along the smell of ash, dust and odd enough, blood.

Slowly opening her eyes, Sakura winced when a powerful flash light the sky with blue and yellow energy, it was a flash, then a second later dust and rock pieces were flying around, out of instinct she curled on a ball to protect her body, feeling how the shockwave actually moved her away, she felt her body hitting rocks, but instead of pain she felt…nothing, as if those hits barely affected her.

In fact, as she stood up, she didn't felt pain at all, or aches, or anything at all, she felt fine, or as fine she can be after being tossed around by an explosion…

Looking at the source of the explosion, Sakura had to blink in surprise, seeing skyscraper size buildings, falling out, sliced by some sort of unnatural force, and those where the far ones, the ones of the epicenter of the explosions were just…uprooted of their base, or downright destroyed, she could easily see remnants of blue and yellow energy like shapes dissipating alongside the smoke.

She could easily taste the power that had caused this destruction, it was overwhelming, but somehow she felt she could easily overshadow it if she wanted it.

Slowly walking around, she felt a draft of wind on her legs, looking down, she found herself staring at her bare legs, and her school skirt, in fact she was clad in her school uniform.

"…What in the name of…" she began, stopping herself altogether hearing some sort of yells, commands in fact, following the voices, against her own will, she found herself staring at a congregation of many robe clad men and women, all carrying swords on their hips, all led by a man in the same robes, but with a white one over the black ones, a small grey moustache and a stylized hairstyle, giving commands.

"The Sotaichou has given his command, on his signal we pellet the area with high rank Kidou, the order is clear, the Rayearth and his sisters cannot leave alive!"

Sakura instantly flattened herself on a wall, looking at the horizon in panic, not because of the Rayearth part, honestly she didn't knew what a Rayearth was, never heard of them, all she knew that these guys were going to attack a guy that was with his sisters, no mercy given, at all.

Something bubbled in Sakura, outrage prominent, with a sneer she turned around and ran to the place the explosion came from, surely the guy and his sisters were there, she had to get to them before this group did or stop this 'sotaichou' from giving the signal for attack.

She didn't knew guy, but letting him alone against such odds was not her style at all, call her too nice, too naïve, too trusty with strangers, she was raised to see the best of people, even if she didn't knew them at all, but the fact he was with his sisters meant he was protecting them, that act alone told her monuments of the guy.

She kept running in a straight line, she didn't feel exhaustion, even at the speed she was going, all she knew was that she had to be there before something bad happened.

Still, she had to wonder how she was able to do all she was doing now, it was surreal, and she didn't feel the usual feeling power of one of the cards in her, at the speed she was going, she was certain she was using The Dash, but she wasn't, The Dash would have never been able to stand the distance and speed she was going, that particular card was meant for short bursts of speed at short distance.

Still she would have her answers soon, she hoped, once she helps this guy, whoever he is, she had to help him.

At the speed she used, she arrived just in time to see the end of the battle, and she could already say that it had been quite a battle, it made her somewhat sick.

In the middle of the crater she could see two figures, one of them was clad just like the old man she had seen before, but she could made out that the man was tall, unnaturally so, with hair that stood in individual spikes and had bells on each tip of hair, on his fallen side she could make out a damaged, chipped and overall brutalized sword that was coated in blood, lots of blood, not to mention the growing pool of blood forming on his fallen form, she found both odd and scary that she was grinding like a maniac, all while unconscious.

The other person was a teen, as tall as Toya, but obviously with more muscle that him, if she dared say, with orange spiky hair, clad in the same robes as the other guys, she noted he was also wounded, as the blood emanating from his back was any proof, not only that, she noted it was also pouring out of his chest, he was alive, but wounded, she also saw that a massive cleaver like sword lay on the ground not too far of him, coated on blood, the grinding guy's blood for certain, he was wounded, on his knees, and had won the seemingly apocalyptic looking battle.

What shocked her was when two kids of her age, clad in the same robes as him, and armed with swords came rushing not far from her, literally hugging the orange haired teenager and sobbing, there she let a small smile play on her lips, and maybe she wasn't needed after all…

"How naïve" sakura, and by extension the orange haired man stopped anything they were going to say or do when they heard that voice, looking down again, she got the shock of her life when she saw an old man with the body or a fully grown up adult with a lot of muscles and scars, vivid scars and fresh wound on each part of his body, bald, with what seemed a long beard that reached to his stomach, looking downright pissed at the orange kid and his sisters, apparently.

"How utterly naïve of you"

Sakura could hear the contempt and utter hate the old man had for the orange kid it was unnatural how much a man could hate a person so much.

"You actually believed you could defeat me, how naïve and childish of you, in over 2000 years I have retain the title of sotaichou of the Gotei 13 for a reason, there hasn't been a shinigami born stronger than me" the old man proclaimed, making Sakura actually to go eye wide, shinigami, as in death gods, as in the Grimm freaking Reaper, now this was way out of hand.

"Until today when I beat your ass" the orange haired teenager said, Sakura couldn't see his face, but she could make out the beginning of a smirk on his face, he was obviously proud of his battle and apparent victory over the old man who claimed to command an army of death gods, even when he was wounded and kneeling, with his sisters close to him, he was proud of his victory, and was openly taunting the guy.

The old man seemed to bristle at this, anger was visibly rolling out of his skin, and there she noted the hole he had near his kidney area, burned hole made, she dared say, by a hand, it was oozing blood, even more as the man grew angrier, she was deadly pale upon seeing this.

"Silence rascal, I'm about to teach you a lesson that you and your sisters will take to the limbo, no law is superior to the one of Seireitei, no law is superior to the law of the king of soul society, human laws are merely child play to us, we do what we must do to preserve the balance and order, regardless where we are, that's why I destroyed that hollow to even the soul, I made an example of that to the Rayearth of wind, and I'll make an example of you, no one is above the laws, no one!" the man bellowed angrily, Sakura actually grew angry at this of course, the man was openly flaunting his position and being downright arrogant, flaunting is power and using it to bring people to their knees, to her this was the very definition of a bully, she hated bullies.

Without knowing she was already making her way to them.

The old man was rearing his fist back, ready to strike the teenager and his sisters down, the orange kid tightened his hold on his sisters, Sakura quickened her pace, not even realizing she had two objects on her hands.

"Learn your place rascal!" he shouted at the same time she tossed the card in front of her and brandished a wand to the card.

"The Shield!"

The shout was clear, the command clear as air, and so was the effect, the card itself fragmented into bits of energy, lashes of energy becoming an invisible bubble around the orange teen and his sisters, the bubble just became visible when the fist met it, Sakura was surprised by the impact and the force behind the fist, but she didn't mind at all, she had temporally stalled him, now for the finale, if it worked of course.

"Leave them alone you bully!" Sakura's scream was all she needed to draw the attention of the guy to her, the man was old, damn old, but that didn't stop her to do what she did next.

She brought the staff up, hard to the chin of the elder, with all she got, the surprise was to her when the man was launched to the air, blood and teeth coming out of him as he sailed in a comical fashion to the skies, and all was missing the classical star twinkle as he vanished out of sight.

Then she looked at the people she saved, she felt odd, lightheaded, like going out to sleep, tired, she didn't knew why, but she just felt going away.

"…the fourth Rayearth…the princess" was all the orange haired teenager said as he lay eyes on her, shock evident on his eyes, she didn't knew what a Rayearth was, or why he referred to her as princess, she didn't mind, she didn't care, all that mattered was that he and his sisters were safe.

She smiled that innocent smile she always gave to everyone, that won her friends everywhere, a genuine smile, with eyes closed.

"Glad I could help"

When she opened her eyes again, she was not on the war torn zone, with the teenager and his sisters, no, she was again in the plains where she had been when she had nearly died the first time.

Now, however she wasn't alone.

The woman at her right side was beautiful, hands down, long flowing, brown hair that shone with its own light, making it to her calves, her eyes were yellow, like gold, while her skin was tanned, neatly tanned, dressed in a dress that seemed to be made out of leaves and sparkles, it was modest she said, it was beautiful, Tomoyo would have love to see this kind of dress.

"**You did a mighty thing, helping a stranger" **the woman spoke, her voice soft, yet strong, odd combination Sakura summarized.

"He felt…not a stranger to me" Sakura said, seating on the soft grass, "He felt…familiar somehow, like my brother Toya" she added.

"**He is a big brother, his purpose, and the purpose of every elder sibling is to safeguard and protect their younger siblings, even more so, you saw firsthand the lengths he was willing to go to help his sisters" **the woman said, gaining a thoughtful look.

"**But sometimes, the youngest must take the task, when there is no other option"**

"…My family…how can I go back" Sakura asked simply.

"**To go back, you must first realize what you are now…for the moment the shot was done, the die was cast, and your fate was forever altered"** the woman said.

"**You're no longer a little girl, you will be taking steps into a different path that you were meant once, for that I am sorry, for I forced it on you" ** Sakura shook her head at that.

"Don't worry…you did it for a good purpose, I can feel it"

"**Good deeds usually pave the way to hell the saying goes"** the woman shot back.

"Do you regret it?" Sakura asked.

"**The lives of several chosen are over my head, jus this year alone we lost eleven chosen of the knight of water, he was the only knight with foreseeable replacements, now he is the only one, they are the only ones" **the woman spoke, regret evident on her voice.

"And…the knights…what are they? What is a Rayearth?" the woman looked at Sakura like if she had grew a second head.

"**You're kidding, right?"** Sakura shook her head, **"(Sigh) get comfortable, this might take a while"**

* * *

"WHAT YOU DID TO MY DAUGHTER!?" in another time, Toya would have been utterly terrified by the fact that his dad had just blew his top off, and was openly raving to the guy who had just, apparently, killed Sakura, his sister, but he knew otherwise, Sakura was alive, Kero knew this, the fact the little guardian hasn't went berserk was proof of this.

Try telling that to Fujitaka Kinomoto, a man who had lived the loss of his young, loving and beautiful wife at an early age, becoming a single parent for two children, one of them who was just three years old when their mother died, and was banging the invisible barrier around them, trying in a desperate attempt to reach Sakura, who was now laying on some sort of salt made circle around her, one that was actually glowing.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER!?" Fujitaka demanded.

"She is not dead" the man spoke, dressed like a count, regal clothes, and even a cape, with brown, long hair and blue eyes, even his face was regal, standing near the circle were Sakura lay.

"Let her go!" Fujitaka snapped.

"Not until we have what we want from her" the regal man said, looking at Fujitaka like some sort of bug, "I still can't conceive that one of the most powerful magicians was conceived by such weakling as you" the man sneered.

"Let me out and I'll show you how weak I can be" Fujitaka snarled.

"There is no need for violence, once this is done, we will let you all go, unharmed" the man said, making Toya snort, "You find something funny boy?"

"Unharmed? Considering how you capture us all I find that phrase kinda hypocritical" the eldest brother snapped, "Odds are that my sister won't be so kind like me or dad, after all she is the witch of the family" he said with a smirk.

"The proper term is enchantress" Kero began.

"Don't ruin the moment Kero"

"After I'm done with her, she will be as harmless as a kitty" the man said with a small smirk grazing his lips, turning to face Sakura, or more importantly, gazing at her left hand.

"How distasteful, one of _them_ here, in our world" the man sneered.

"Then you know the moment she wakes up you and your…friends" Kero began, looking around at the assembled group of people who glared at him, "Will be broken by her, she is too much for you, before and after" Kero snapped.

"We'll see about that" the man snapped, looking at the small mot of white light slowly making its way to sakura, easily penetrating the walls of the glowing circle, then slowly circling Sakura.

"That's her soul" Kero breathed, Fujitaka and Toya gave the sun guardian an incredulous stare, "So pure, so small…yet so powerful" he whispered to the duo, "Whatever you do don't more a muscle, and try not to draw her attention too much, trust me, when she gets up is not going to be pretty"

"Brothers!" the man suddenly bellowed, "Sisters! Long we have waited for this day, for the apparition of a Clow chosen one, and I find myself…disappointed" he said, making Kero growl, "The greatest magician ever to walk this world, and he chose a little girl, an inexperienced girl with no magical ties, nor magical familiars willing to guide her, he simply let her be, the gift of magic and his greatest creation, the cards to her command, well that mistake shall be fixed now" the man spoke.

"This has been what The Pact had done for the past five-hundred years, rectifying the mistake Magic itself has made, and righting the wrong" Kero eyes went wide at that.

"You! I thought Clow destroyed the organization 200 years ago!" Kero screamed, but this seemed to not be heard by the man and his allies.

"Even worse, forces greater than ours had chosen her to be her champion, a knight" this in fact brought murmurs to the assembled, "This mistake shall be rectified" he bellowed, turning to Sakura, reaching for something on his clothes, suddenly pulling a dagger out, Fujitaka cried in despair, but not as much as Kero.

"DON'T DO IT! YOU'LL KILL HER!"

"With this dagger, and circle of charred, dusty bones, I cut thee of the ether, normal you were born…"

"NO!"

The small mot of light hovering Sakura vanished.

"And normal shall you return!"

Sakura slammed her fist ever so lightly on the ground, like a tap at the same time the man kneeled and the dagger was just inches of cutting a single line on the circle.

The earth itself shifted under the feet of the regal man, then a single pillar of pure rock, of the size of his torso emerged, impacting him on the stomach with violence, launching him a good ten meters to the air before landing roughly on the ground, the sound of cracked bones accompanying the fall.

All was silence, silence that was broken when the dagger the man was holding finally fell with a resounding 'clang' echoing on the warehouse, all eyes were on the fallen man, no one noticing Sakura standing up.

When they actually did notice her, they notice how pissed she looked, "That…wasn't nice" she hissed, suddenly extending her gloved left hand, the regal man was suddenly pulled onward by an invisible force, going towards Sakura, then stopping just inches of the salt circle, in front of Sakura, floating mid-air.

The little girl simply walked onward, stuck her left hand out, the barrier itself around her gave in upon her hand, allowing her to reach the man, or more what he had on his robes, pulling out of his robes, much to Kero's shock, the Sakura book, inside with the cards and the sealed wand.

"That's mine" she said, taking the book again, the moment she retracted her arm, with the book back into the circle, the book began to fragment into tiny particles of light that began to fuse in her glove, slowly forming a small gold like lace growing and spiraling on her forearm.

Once the book was fully fragmented, Sakura did look at her left hand, and slowly smiled, "She was right after all" she said, more like an afterthought that anything else.

The regal man looked, if nothing else, outraged at this act of Sakura, even more as he saw the state of her left hand and glove, he simply couldn't contain it anymore.

"You…disgrace, you think you can actually win, actually think you can defeat us, we are man, we are legion!" he spat, Sakura just kept looking at the man, suddenly reaching for her glove, and brushing the crystal in it, at the same time the man was suddenly pushed away, fast, it was just the timely intervention of his subordinates that he didn't end up stamped on the wall.

On the distance he noted how Sakura summoned again that golden staff, this time however, each end of the staff held now two pink rings, and he noted how she twirled the staff by one end of this, easily destroying the salt energized circle around her, then finishing by placing the staff upwards, wanting to slam it to the ground, it was in that moment that he and his cohorts fell to the ground, on their knees, gasping for air.

"Bad guys, meet Nova" Sakura began, "Nova, meet bad guys" she added, the sudden pressure he was feeling seemed to intensify two-fold.

"_How is this possible?" _he thought, amazed and scared, _"To being able to project her will outside her body and enforce it to other beings require years or arduous training and mediation, but she is projecting her will like if she has been doing this before, its unnatural…could it be? Could it be she is a…a prodigy?" _he thought with alarm, even more when Sakura twirled the newly named Nova one last time.

"Now…scram"she then slammed Nova to the ground, and the man and his cohorts swore that her hand was being guided by a man in black robes and orange hair.

The moment Nova was slammed to the ground, the ground in front Sakura was ruptured, then lifted up by an unearthly force basically separating Sakura and her family of their kidnappers via a massive rock wall, much to the shock of the onlookers, the wall reaching the ceiling and even tearing it apart.

Sakura looked at her handiwork with a satisfied look, then advanced to her captured family, to the capture trio the way she advanced held different reactions, but one remained the same.

Sakura right now, was still the same girl they knew, daughter, sister, mistress, family…but no one could deny how scary she looked when pissed.

Once she was close to them, she flicked Nova, then slammed the tip to the invisible barrier Kero claimed was around them, it was no surprise to them how the barrier fell, well to Toya and Fujitaka did not surprise them, to Kero it was another story altogether.

He knew the barrier was unnaturally strong, he knew by experience how strong the barrier was, he had been trapped by one before, during the war Clow had waged against The Pact twenty years prior to his death, and even Clow had been hard pressed to break that one, and at that time he had been at the apex of his power, Sakura was still too young, even with a Soul weapon in her hands it would have required at least several extra blows to bring the barrier down, but there she was, one blow and the barrier fell.

Fujitaka wasted no time in standing up and basically shoving Sakura into a hug, "My dear…Kami I was so scared" he whispered in her ear, Sakura let a small smile grace her lips as well.

"You think you were scared? When I got those calls…" Sakura choked up, slowly hugging her dad, "I feared the worse dad, I really did…I'm so sorry this happened" she whispered.

"Don't be" he said, "We'll have a long chat once we get out of here" he added a little too sternly, Sakura didn't mind, she owed him this much.

"Okay dad, don't worry, I won't hold no secrets, not anymore" she said, releasing him of the hug, then turning to the wall she had created, "We don't have much time, they are pounding the wall with all they have, it won't be long before it falls" Sakura stated, flexing her left hand, then giving it a side-glance.

"You're right, better flee to fight another day" Kero replied, flying and landing on Sakura's shoulder.

"And where should we go? Our house is not safe" Fujitaka stated, it was obvious the stress in his voice, something Sakura noted, and she didn't liked it one bit.

"…Then we deliver a message" Sakura hissed, advancing towards the wall and slowly picking up the speed, taking Nova with both hands and then breaking on a full on sprint, towards the wall.

"SAKURA!"

"FURY!" Sakura all but screamed as she slammed Nova onto the earth wall, Fujitaka and Toya all but felt a shockwave when the staff met the wall, then got eye wide when the wall itself cracked everywhere, then it exploded, rather messily they might add.

The screams of pain and rocks falling on the ground where inconsequential to Sakura however, she spotted at least six people on the ground, all wounded after being pelted by rocks of the size of their heads, she didn't care, she just advanced to the regal man who had been the ringleader of this attack, but not the leader, she was certain of this.

Kneeling in front of him, she gripped the man by the helm of his shirt, and lifted him to her eye-level, there she noted he was conscious.

"Okay, listen up because I'm going to say this once, just once, tell whoever you follow that they better not mess with me or my family or my friends, ever" Sakura began, "…I'm out of your level, always was, always been, don't get close to my family, to no one, get out of my city and don't return, if you do…" Sakura punctuated the phrase with a slam of Nova to the ground, so said ground cracking with ease upon impact.

"Don't forget to tell your boss that" she added as she released him and walked away, her family following her soon enough, leaving the warehouse.

The regal man lay on the ground for five minutes, glaring at the torn ceiling, then narrowed his eyes.

"You want war little girl, you have it"

* * *

_**The Codex Maxima, a 'pocket' guide…**_

_**The Rayearth of Earth: little to nothing is actually know about the fourth Rayearth, only what stories and lore can tell to historians, what can be deduced of course is that the fourth Rayearth is a rather powerful knight, passing the line the other three rayearths have in terms of raw power, the lack of information is due to one single fact, the limited, if not almost non-existent presentations of the knight itself, the knight has presented itself on two occasions, the first one was during the end of the Great War, when the Queen fought the Dark Lord, the first ever recorded apparition of the knight of earth, the second time was during the Crystalia Civil War, when the people of Crystalia rose in arms against the corrupted queen and her equally corrupted family, the knight backing the rebellion, alongside the presence of a fourth knight, the next in line for the throne, only thing remains true, the speed in which the knight itself learns, to put it scientifically, she sees, the learns it, then applies it according to whatever elements she has at her disposition.**_

_**There are rumors; however of another knight of earth appearing in current times, the information is not accurate, and currently any sources regarding the apparition of a possible Rayearth of earth are being 'silenced'.**_

_**Soul artifacts: often referred as Rayearth artifacts, soul artifacts are as their name implies, objects that are forged out of the soul of an individual, the actual mechanics of how they are made are sketchy at best, with the secrets being tied to the Guardians, the only know facts about the artifacts are that one, only the source of the soul, meaning often a Rayearth can wield that weapon, there are never the same one from the other, share actual trades compared to the physiological profiles of the wielders and are indestructible, not to say of their sister objects, the Rayearth armors.**_

* * *

_and there it is people, another chapter done and done, did you liek it? hate it' confuse you? there is a small box under this now, its called review, and there you can let me know how much you either like my story, or flame it, be aware, the flames will be used to fuel my creativity and keep writting on, good reviews too._

_So long people, till another chance, Hypn0s here signs off._


	4. 3: Sakura storm

_**Hello my faithful readers, it is I Hypn0s! bringing yet another chapter of Sakura The Pillar.**_

_**Now I have been getting some nice feedback on how my story it's going, i'm glad of that, i'm also glad that some of you noted the link with both Ichigo the Inferno story I made, as those who have been keeping tabs so far must have noted that Sakura basically pulled an unwilling Deux Ex Machina...then again I am writting this, meaning I pulled the Deux Ex Machina, not her...Oh you know what I mean.**_

_**now let's cut to the chase, and some warning, this chapter contains a badass sakura, enough said, enjoy.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 3: SAKURA STORM**

_Two weeks after…_

Sakura looked at the ceiling on her room, it was, by fact, the last part of the house to be fixed, the ceiling hole she had made in a fit of rage, using a person as an object to open so said hole.

"Dad! Is the ceiling made out of wood?" She asked.

"Yes Sakura, and before you ask yes you can use it, but you have to paint it afterwards" was the reply from other part of the house.

"Hoe" she moaned as she rose her left hand to the hole, "The Wood, do your thing girl" she commanded, not a second later her hand was enveloped by a light as particles of light began to attack itself on the hole, and began to close itself, ten seconds later there was no hole, just brown, polished wood she would have to paint.

"Thanks" to Sakura, a transparent female figure seemed to smile to Sakura, then dissolved completely, returning to her glove.

There she smiled, bringing the palm to her eye level and examining the drawing in it, it showed a simple four-pointed star in it, or it should be a four-pointed star, as it was missing several portions of it, she sighed.

The star itself was a representation of the fifty-three cards she held, each card formed a part of the star, and whenever a card was activated a piece of the star vanished, it was odd to see the star, as each tip represented the element the cards itself were on, The Earthy, The Windy, The Watery and the Fiery all held the tips, and the cards under them formed the body, with The Hope being the only card on the middle of the star, with no actual card to be under, after all The Hope was originally The Nothing, a card in a power league of its own.

The reason now she held the cards on her glove…well it had been a complicated thing, a very complicated thing, the moment the cards became hers, truly hers, imbued with her magic, her essence, what made her…her, the glove was pretty much the same, in a sense, according to Gaia, the woman she had met in the meadow when she helped that orange haired teen, the glove was a mix of the very fabric of the universe itself, sowed with the breath of life, AKA her soul, in essence the glove was made to her, for her by forces that in a sense had shaped the universe itself, reason why it was required for Nova the Bo Staff that was in fact the physical representation of her soul.

The moment the book with the cards and the sealing wand touched the glove, both forces interacted, recognizing each other, and forming one, more powerful entity, where the Rayearth glove and Sakura book once were now stood the 'Sakura Glove' unofficially called, it had all the benefits of both the book and the glove, with easier accessibility to the now upgraded powers of the cards, and Nova had been upgraded too, fused with the sealing wand.

Of course all came with trade-offs, her now upgraded powers had somehow evolved the Sakura cards to a level not even Clow Reed had foreseen, as a result, the cards had become fully sentient, yes they were sentient before, but only when she unleashed them or there was a considerable magical source they could use to manifest, if still on their card mode.

Now it was different, they were fully alive, capable of manifesting on the world without her command, to talk, to feel even more emotions that before, it was mind-bogging that her new position as Rayearth and sudden boost of power had allowed this, hell she was still getting used to the fact she was an all powerful entity.

"_Not that I knew what a Rayearth was to begin with"_ she thought with a small frown, one that Gaia had displayed before when she realized that the Rayearth knight's tale, for all intents and purposes, in this world was just an obscure magical myth, not a child's tale like in many worlds, reason why Sakura didn't knew about it to begin with, only magic individuals really knew about the knights, and even then their information was as loose as the one of the many tales spoken by them.

Of course she got the real tale out from one of the real sources, one of the Guardians themselves, Gaia, the knights had been created originally with the purpose to protect the queen of Crystalia during a very devastating war that ravaged their world, all three knights had been originally crystalians by birth, born, raised and all that jazz, that had been one of the reasons the knights began to be selected from outside Crystalia, after the betrayal of the original Rayearth of water and the death of the original knight of wind, the surviving knight of fire went into a downward spiral of depression, which ultimately ended up killing him, as an experiment, the next knights called were from other worlds, they proven to be more tough that the original knights in terms of mind, and so far none of them have betrayed Crystalia like the original knight of water did, therefore the selection became like that from thereon.

Even more so, the original knights had become so intricate within crystalian culture, that the very mention of their names, or their tittles brings reverence or the fear of God on anyone, even more considering that the Rayearth knights were going to be a one-time thing, born out of desperation during the crystalian Great War, but they stuck, people believed in them, trusted them, and when Crystalia needed champions the most, they were called again, the one-time snit became a custom, and a custom became the legend, and the legend became the symbol, the symbol she and apparently other three had become now…it was overwhelming.

She now, as a knight had access to a plethora of powers and skills that made the use of her most offensive cards somewhat obsolete, true she could use The Earthy to rip a chunk of the land, but then again she could stomp the ground an cause a fissure on the city as a whole, if she put her will into it, apparently most of her powers were tied to her emotions and will, if she wanted to break the world in two, then she would, otherwise she wouldn't.

She had told Toya, her dad and Kero all she knew…almost everything she corrected herself, looking at the now repaired ceiling.

She had a deadline, Gaia had told her herself, unlike the other knights, she knew how much time she had in this world before actually going to Crystalia, the moment school starts, she would have five months, she lost nearly a month on both the hospital, her brief, if not annoying house-arrest, the fight with the Pact and the subsequent two weeks fixing their home, and who can forget the soon arrival of her boyfriend.

Her smile there turned bitter-sweet, Li and his family were all sorcerers, all magically attuned and trained, on both the art and lore of it, there was a snowball chance in hell that she would be able to hide her Rayearth nature to them, especially Li, she had always been worried that he would be bothered that his girlfriend was powerful, now add the fact she can sink a city with just a stomp of her foot, or that she no longer needed her sealing wand to unleash the power of the cards, or even more so, the upgrades of the cards themselves.

Either Li would be proud of how much she had grown or…she shook her head, pushing those negative thoughts aside, Li would not be envious of her, it wasn't in his nature at all, he wasn't like that, besides it wasn't her fault she was now an all powerful knight capable of feats not even the Sakura cards would find hard to accomplish.

It was Gaia's fault to begin with.

"_**Hey, how come is my fault?"**_

"Because you 'upgraded' me?" Sakura retorted, looking at the repaired ceiling, "You do realize that Li's mum is going to freak out once she sees the glove?"

"_**And it's a bad thing because?"**_

"Because it will put a lot of pressure on me…as if not having the world on your shoulders, a world that is not even your home world to being with" Sakura answered.

"_**The burden sometimes looks too much, but you have to remember, you are not alone in this, not anymore"**_

Sakura let a long sigh of frustration, turning to the bucket of paint close to her and the brush to paint, "Okay, time to work, The Float" she called, extending her left hand and pointing it to the can of paint.

Nothing happened.

"The…The Float!" Sakura called again, and again nothing.

"Oh for the love of…The Float dammit!" she all but screamed, nothing happened, letting a harrumph of annoyance she basically rampaged her way towards the living room.

The first floor, as she expected, was a cacophony of sounds and a light show, and a cosplay convention, all rolled into her living room.

Most of the cards, thankfully or not, had been given chibi like bodies before their transformation and upgrades to the 'Rayearth' cards, unofficial name since the cards still had her name on them, either case, most of the small cards, like The Bubbles or The Cloud retained their forms visible on their card form, one being a chibi mermaid, the other being a pink chibi, both currently floating on a pink cloud, slouching, obviously asleep, unaware of the chaos bellow them.

Other cards, like the most combat oriented The Fight or The Arrow actually being present and seated on the sofa, seeing TV, obviously mesmerized by what they were seeing, Kero perched on top of The Fight's head, watching the show as well.

Other cards were frolicking around, small motes of lights moving among the place, at day no one would notice, especially with the wall tall fence surrounding her home, or the other homes for that matter, the only way they would really notice the cards would be…

**KNOCK! KNOCK!**

"Everyone hide!" Sakura snapped, as on cue every card around became light and converged to her glove, it was all in just a matter of a second, Kero had fallen into the sofa for the lack of a support, and despite the fact he had fallen over his head, he had to act as a doll until Sakura could take him to her room.

"Sakura-chan, I'm back" so said girl let out a sigh of relieve, "It's just dad, false alarm, come out…again" Sakura said, in less than a second the cards were again doing what they were doing in the living room, "That reminds me, where is The Float?" she asked.

Every card heard her, and immediately they pointed at the floating feathers formation, how motes of lights could point when they had no physical bodies she would never know, and rather never know, at all.

"Another false alarm?" Fujitaka said with a smile, but Sakura knew better, he was enjoying her sudden outbursts.

"Yes dad, another one, thanks to you" she snapped, then shacked her head, "Anyway, Float, I need your help, we need to paint the hole in my room, then we can rest" The Float, perhaps the only upgraded card in her arsenal that wasn't talking at all, nodded, or as much you can nod while being a feather formation, but she could see some resignation in The Float.

"We finish fast and you can return to your feathers" The Float seemed to like that idea as it went faster to Sakura's room, leaving a slightly amused Sakura who followed behind.

"What about Syaoran, weren't you going to visit him today?" Fujitaka asked.

"Chance of plans Tou-san, Li-kun will return a day before school begins, apparently The Pact got wind of his warning to me and tried to attack him and his family, according to Li-kun his mom is less than pleased with the sudden attack and tore them apart, so she is making herself sure to bring everything essential here, she believes this is not the last time we see The Pact…I agree with her" Sakura mentioned.

Fujitaka didn't liked how Sakura was acting now, one moment she is the normal, carefree always smiling girl he raised, the other she shifts into some sort of battle-hardened veteran of battle, guarding her feelings too close to her heart.

"I thought they had learned their lesson back in the warehouse, after what you did" he said, Sakura slightly nodded at that.

"So did I Tou-san, but it seems is not the case, they are obsessed with the cards, and I'm an immediate obstacle, one that has too many weakness to exploit" she snapped bitterly, making him blink, alongside with the cards who shifted uncomfortably around the room.

"That time was a freebie; they are not getting away with hurting someone precious to me again, they do it again and I'll break them" she added as she went to her room to finish her ceiling.

Fujitaka let out a drawn out sigh, turning to two of the most powerful cards in the room, The Light and The Dark, both having equally worried looks on their faces.

"…Promise me…promise me that you'll never let her cross that line…ever" he asked, both cards, hell every card in the room nodded at his request, "I can't help her at all, I'm no wizard, I can offer moral support but that's it, I can actually help her, I wish I could, but I…I feel so useless, just promise me that she won't cross that line, ever"

_**A week later, Tomoeda School…**_

The first month was gone officially, according to Gaia, five more to go.

Well at least she had school to occupy her time, and Tomoyo, and her boyfriend, and her work, and homework, and beating The Pact back…oh yes, five long months that would fly away.

"SAKURA-CHAN!"

"EEPP!"

For the moment she would have to content with her current adversary, Tomoyo, her super clinchy best friend who just found out she had an accident.

Every student of Tomoeda was treated with the sight of Tomoyo hugging Sakura to death, which considering how her life will turn out from this point on and how many attempts at her life will happen, being glomped to death by her best friend and family was currently occupying her top ten list of 'how to die without your dignity'

"Tomoyo…Tomoyo-chan…I can't breathe" Sakura gasped, or mocked gasped, the surprise of Tomoyo's surprise glomp vanished as soon as she realized that she wasn't feeling the pressure of Tomoyo's hug on her ribs, which was odd, freaky and overall weird.

Tomoyo instantly let go of Sakura, examining her at least five times, it freaked Sakura a lot.

"Tomoyo, I'm okay" Sakura assured, losing the 'chan' suffix just to get Tomoyo's attention, it was the only way she truly knew (and didn't involve the use of one of her hand-made battle dresses) to actually get Tomoyo's attention when she is in that way.

It worked immediately, Tomoyo was looking at Sakura in a scandalized manner, then pouted, "No fair, you always do that and I can't find myself to be angry at you" Tomoyo whined.

"That's the charm of it" Sakura replied with that sun lifting smile of hers, Tomoyo took Sakura's smile for a second, then squealed, like every other girl around Sakura, and together proceed to glomp her.

"OH COME ON!" Sakura cried out as a dozen of girls, and Tomoyo tried to do what the truck couldn't.

On the third floor of the school, Syaoran Li and his cousin Mei Ling watched with some mild fascination at how Sakura got mobbed by the girls, all trying to manhandle her because…

"KAWAAAIIIII!"

"LET ME GO!"

Li chuckled at that, "Not even five minutes in school and she is already causing mayhem, (sigh) that's her alright" he commented to his cousin.

Neither of them noted that two pair of eyes where set on them.

* * *

The first three classes had ended as fast as it had began, Sakura noted, now it was time for lunch and to actually stretch their legs, being cooped on a classroom for over five hours, seated on those hard seats was not exactly the nicest thing ever, that was certain, no amount of magic could fix that.

It was a good thing that Li and Mei Ling were back, the class was surely stupefied when they saw them back, most assuming that Li and Mei had returned to their natal China, Sakura had assumed the same, after all they felt far better in their natal land, not far from home, homesick some call it, she felt the same when she was on China.

As she carried her bento box alongside Tomoyo, making their way to the tree she, Tomoyo, Li and Mei usually sat on to eat during lunch, it had been their spot even after Mei Ling had left to China just half-way of the capture of all the Clow Cards.

Now things were different she thought, the 'game' if could be called like this, had been stepped on to a new level, a more frightening level, there was no more Clow Cards to capture or reincarnated sorcerer to test her, or dead lover spirit trying to kill her or rouge all powerful card trying to send her to oblivion, there was an organization outside, somewhere, most willing to tangle with a Rayearth knight, even one on its grow stage, just to get the cards she had now, cards on a glove made by the very fabric of the universe, reality and part of her soul.

No one could or would imagine that the fabric of reality felt like velvet, so smooth.

Also in the time after her confrontation with The Pact she had been having again the same dreams she had before, this time with different people, locations, events, it was overwhelming her, it was scaring her.

She still was unable to put a face to the many people she was dreaming on, just voices, actions, most of them she was forgetting, she had already forgotten half of her first prophetic dream before her assassination attempt, and she had taken note to write the rest of her dreams, less she forgets them, she knew she was learning something out of them, most of them were just menial events, things anyone could do, playing, talking, walking, most of those events held little to her to relate to, but she knew that those dreams were leading her to somewhere.

At the matter at hand of course, once Li and Mei were seated under the tree with her and Tomoyo, she struck.

"How many magical families are in Tomoeda?"

Let it be known that she has tact, how to use it is an entirely different matter.

"I-what?" was her boyfriend's most eloquent answer, after all she just dropped out of the blue, and he was about to taste the Goji berries his mother made for him alone.

"Kero mentioned that he felt magic around Tomoeda" Sakura began.

"Of course, this city is literally the mouth and heart of magic in the world" Mei answered.

"I meant he felt it from other people, families, he said he felt less than when he was awake and Clow was alive, well? Out with it" Sakura commanded, making Li slightly squirm under her gaze.

"I…don't know what you're talking about" he said.

Sakura simply narrowed her eyes, before Li or Mei could do something Sakura had reached for the bars behind the tree, gripped one of them and squeezed, then she pulled, taking a handful of metal on her hands.

"Well…I'm waiting" she said, slowly rolling the hunk of metal on her hands, and slowly molding it onto a metal ball, Li and Mei looked horrified at the display of raw strength, and they didn't like it one bit.

"Uh, Sakura-chan, you can stop using The Power now" Sakura kept silence, slowly letting the ball out of her hands, then flicking her left hand, her left, gloved hand, much to Li's shock, The Power card, the card that granted the user, or the target, unnatural strength, able to even lift fully grown up elephants with ease, and there it was, inactive, on her hands, with her right hand she grabbed the metal ball, and squeezed, the ball gave in with a horrible groan, like paste on her hand.

Li and Mei's looks were priceless, worth of being taped, had not Tomoyo bared the same look as well.

"Again…I'm waiting" she repeated, letting the damaged ball to the ground at last.

"Holy crap" Mei Ling basically summed everything up.

Li by his part, regained his cool, after seeing his girlfriend basically use a piece of metal as clay, without the use of The Power, it was a hard task, but dammit she was asking something, and that little display of power was not something she would partake that easily, she is not arrogant, so it must mean a lot to her.

"Okay Sakura-chan, for you" Li commented, letting out a long sigh, one that Sakura mimicked.

"So, what Kero-chan truly meant? There are magical families around? Like yours?" she asked.

"Hardly" Li commented with a laugh, "Like I said, Tomoeda is the mouth and hearth of magic in this world, odd enough, there are focal points all over the world, but Tomoeda is the most magic strong point around, and the biggest I add, it is natural magical attuned individuals feel…attracted to this place" Syaoran began, "As a result this, in long lost times, was a haven for magical families during the purges"

"The purges?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, I forget you were not taught like us, the purges happened 500 years ago, those times were different that these, long before Clow's birth, the facts of how the purges began are sketchy, but anyone knows what happened afterwards, the complete hunt of every magician, enchanter or summoner on this world" Li spoke grimly.

"In those times Tomoeda was less than a farm and thick woods with cliffs, it was the perfect hiding spot, those who made it set roots here, those who didn't…well" Li said a little quietly.

"It's…horrible" Sakura whispered, horrified by what Li had told her.

"Yeah, in fact no one truly knows who started the purges, those times were different, there was no such a thing as secrecy of magic, your neighbor could be a wizard and you could give a damn, but…something changed, no one truly knows what happened, not even Kero or Yue, and they are basically magical constructs, one thing is certain, the aftermath, what emerged after" Li said.

"The Pact" Sakura spat the name, a bitter taste on her mouth after her last run-in with the organization.

If Li was shocked by her sudden hate by the group, he didn't show it immediately.

"Yeah, The Pact was, at the beginning, an organization of pure magicians, most of them trying to fight off the purges, the resistance if you will, when the purges ended, so did the noble group, somehow it got replaced by nobles, wizards, enchanters, it got bad, bigotry began, less than you know, the world sees the rise of The Pact" Li said.

"Nobles, all looking for something, magical related, they are powerful, rich, and above all, without a shred of conscience" Mei added.

"Magical artifacts, of any power, of increased rarity, the rarer the better" Li said.

"And the Clow cards are as rare as they can get" Sakura mentioned.

"Yeah, not to mention the most powerful around, you got your work cut off for you" Li joked, Sakura didn't like the joke at all.

"But" Tomoyo interrupted, "Why they are gathering magical artifacts?" she asked, and to be honest Sakura wanted to know that too.

"Beats me, mother believes that they are draining the artifacts of their latent magic to infuse it onto some sort of super-weapon, others in the magical circles believe that they are taking all the magic in the objects to themselves, to add to their power, others, in more obscure circles believe that the stolen magic is being funnel into a single individual, one that will cast a very powerful spell, of what kind I don't know, the art of spell-casting has been dead for far too long, real wizards haven't been seen since Clow Reed, only enchanters like you and me" Li stated.

"Enchanters, meaning we use objects to cast magic, instead of using magic words" she ventured.

"Yeah, it's complicated at best, but if The Pact is interested in you then you must be careful, they are not know for giving up that easily, no matter how strong the enchanter is, or how hidden the object is, they always get it" Li warned, a frown on his face.

"Oh I know Syaoran-Kun, I know, Kero-chan warned me about them, only Clow escaped them" Sakura mentioned, slowly bringing her left hand up, spotting the star formation on her gloved palm, "But…I am now on a different league than anyone here" she said, bringing her hand up to Li's eye-level.

At first Li stared at his girlfriend's gloved hand like if it was an common to see a glove with a crystal there, it was on further inspection that he saw that the glove was anything but average, he instantly recognized Sakura's magical emblem etched in crystal on the glove, when she turned her hand he saw the star formed by the fifty-two cards, The Hope placed on the center of the star formation, when he touched her gloved hand, he instantly recoiled, like if he had been struck by lightning, pale as a sheet of paper.

"It…it can't be, they are legends, stories!" he exclaimed, utterly shocked by what he now knew.

"Uh…Li-kun, you're not making sense" Tomoyo stated, a little worried.

"…Rayearth" the sole whisper brought a shiver to Mei-Ling's spine, who looked at Sakura as if she had grown extra limbs, and three extra heads, out of her scalp.

"No way…no way in hell, they are myths, they don't exist" Mei-Ling hissed to his cousin whose only answer to her was to lift Sakura's left hand and display it to her, Mei-Ling basically lost all color of her face after that.

"Uh…what's a Rayearth?" Tomoyo asked, being the only one of the group with no magical ancestry or way to find out, she was sometimes left out of the loop on some things.

"The rayearths, according to the myths are some of the strongest, if not the strongest mortals ever to walk the universe itself, granted the powers to control the natural forces they are controlled natural disasters…plus 9000, they are powerful, nearly invincible, armed to tear armies apart and very, very rare" Li said, looking at Sakura oddly, then shaking his head.

"Why it had to be you? Can't the universe give you a break?" Li asked in annoyance.

"Is not like I asked it, besides I'm not alone in this, Gaia mentioned…"

"Whoa whoa WHOA! Did you just say Gaia, as in Guardian of earth and near god-like entity Gaia? That Gaia?" Mei-Ling said in shocked stupor.

"Uh, yeah, I don't know another Gaia, unless The Earthy is nicknamed Gaia then…"

"Sakura focus!" Li snapped, making her look at him with wide eyes, "You don't get it right, the guardians have never been this involved with the knights, at least not this close, they guide yes, they talk yes, but this? Interaction in such an early stage? And to add you're the Rayearth of earth, if the rayearths are rare, then you're rarer than the knights themselves" Li snapped to a sour looking Sakura.

"Thank you for calling me rare and weird oh dear loving boyfriend" Sakura drawled.

"Uh, is not that I think you are weird and all that, is just that your status makes you…and oddity, okay that didn't came up right" he confessed, "What I try to say is that while the knights are rare, meaning that they appear at random times, fifty years, a century, a millennium, one thing remains certain, they have never had other powers that their own" He added.

"Uh…what?" Sakura and Tomoyo asked.

"Every knight recorded in lore has been, for the lack of better words, normal, they don't have powers of their own, all their powers come from their Rayearth nature…which brings me to this…lore says that a Rayearth potential has to 'die' but not really die, to be between life and death, then to be reborn as a knight, a crystalian/whatever the world he or she comes from hybrid, since the knights are originally crystalians…the truck accident didn't do that did it?" Sakura didn't say anything; she just looked at Li, then sighed.

"That night…there were people, two of them, they had…I don't know, hi-tech armors, nothing I have ever seen ever, one of them even had a rifle, he…he shot me, I…I guess I died because I met Gaia, next I know I am seeing things, seeing how I punch that guy, sending him away, like nothing, then gripping that girl by the neck, lifting her up, then the accident, which I must confess was staged by Gaia, there was no normal way to hide the hole in my clothes" Sakura said.

"But…a truck and a car accident, really Gaia doesn't know how to be subtle" Li spat.

Sakura simply shrugged her shoulders, "A week later the same guy attacked me, but I was ready, I saw the laser dot aiming at me, I chased him, beat him, I didn't use the cards too much, heck I pushed him trough a concrete wall, and kept the rifle as mine, I still have it in the closet, just…don't tell dad…he'll freak out" Sakura asked.

"He…doesn't know about that?" Mei wondered.

"Not a bit, especially with the time I have left" Sakura stated.

"What do you mean by that?" Tomoyo asked.

Sakura remained silent for over ten seconds, then looked at the trio, "I have five months counted now to stop The Pact and those two who tried to kill me before I'm called to Crystalia"

* * *

"You heard all that father?"

"_**I have…she is indeed a Rayearth, the one of earth if the report of Isaac is true, a truly dangerous opponent, we will need to rethink our approach"**_

"She is an inexperienced, naïve child father, I can take her down"

"_**And risk you, hardly, you are my daughter, above all your safety goes first, even more so against a superior opponent, do not forget what you have learned of the Rayearth knights"**_

"What little I learned you mean, there is little to nothing on them"

"_**In combat they shine the most, she will break your style, and you might think you are in control, but is far from the truth, in combat, the rayearths always control the ebb of battle, they learn at a frightening pace, if they see it and have the elements, the can mimic it, and Sakura Kinomoto has most certainly the elements to mimic what she sees"**_

"The cards"

"_**Yes, for the moment they are beyond our reach, we need to rethink, to plan, we have time"**_

"The event is near father, the prophecy is at hand, we cannot delay"

"_**And we won't, patience child, all good things come to those who wait, and we have waited the longest" **_

"Yes…then shall I let Isaac know about this?"

"_**No, let the fool engage in his little vendetta, the fact we won't engage in this doesn't mean we can't watch, learn as much as you can of her fighting style, or lack of one, when the time comes to subdue her we can use what we have learned to truly stop her"**_

"Yes father"

"_**And remember, don't flirt with taken boys, I'm sure as hell not going to get between you and an enraged Rayearth because you were dumb enough to flirt with her boyfriend"**_

"FATHER!"

"What was that scream all about?" Sakura wondered as she saw a blond girl of her age, clutching a cellphone, blush brightly as she wailed at the person on the other end, surely her dad, if the screams were led to something.

"Sakura-chan, you have to tell your dad" Tomoyo pleaded.

"How, I pray ask I'm going to tell him something like that, he is already freaked enough with all the card captor business and me being the mistress of the cards, I told him a very toned down version of my Rayearth duties" Sakura snapped back to a shocked Tomoyo.

"(Sigh) listen, even if I told him what it's going to solve? He can't do nothing about it, besides its better this way, less he knows the better" Sakura muttered.

"You think that is right?" Li wondered out loud.

"I don't know Li…but I'm following my heart on this one, dammed if I back down" she added with conviction, something that the trio found odd on her.

"You should really keep your wits about twerp"

"Toya…shut it" Sakura hissed, turning around and seeing her brother and Yukito on the other end of the fence, in a way she was glad to see them both, especially Yukito, since he and Yue were in essence, one of the same, but with different skin, it was safe to assume that Toya had filled him in with all that had happened so far.

"Does he knows?" still she needed confirmation.

"Yeah, pretty much demanded it, I gotta say, Yukito doesn't lack tack like Yue, also he doesn't threaten me with large icicles aimed to my head if I don't talk" Toya said, much to Sakura's annoyance.

"I say I was sorry" Yukito whined.

"I know, you know that you and Yue are just two parts of the same coin, he is just…your ugly side" Toya confessed to a sighing Yukito.

"I'll have words with him later on" Sakura cut tersely, everyone knew that after the accident, Sakura was no longer the same, something was changing her, she was all smiles with friends, family and people she knew, but put someone trying to hurt any of them and she turns into a damn dragon and try to bite someone's head off.

"IN any case" Sakura suddenly said, turning to her boyfriend, "At the matter at hand, Li, there are magicians in Tomoeda, right?" she asked.

"Yeah" Li said, catching on what she was saying, "And no, I can't tell you" he added.

"What?" she snapped, a little too hard to anyone's liking.

"I can't tell you because I don't know who they are" Li clarified, "The same magic that attracts magical attuned families to Tomoeda acts also as a shield, a shield so thick that not even the most powerful magical sensors ca hope to pass it, furthermore, what I say there are few magical users I mean it, of each family, and if they're lucky, they can have one magical familiar, the purges were that severe that even today we are feeling the aftershocks, so no Sakura-chan, I can't because simply is not on my level, I'm sorry" if Sakura was disappointed by this information, she didn't show it at all.

"Oh…okay then" Sakura said, returning to her bento.

"Why you asked that?" Mei-Ling wondered out loud, and to be honest so did the rest.

"Well…I don't know, I have been having this strange feeling, have you ever wondered why the cards didn't went beyond Tomoeda?" Sakura asked, much to the shock of the group.

"Come again?" Li asked.

"Think about it, the cards were released, by all accounts they should have left all over the world, not just Tomoeda, and why they attached to some objects or people, like The Shield did with Tomoyo's music box and The Sword" Sakura explained.

"I…I don't know" for once, Li was at a lost, at the time of course he could care less why the cards were in one single city, made things easier, but now it made sense, why the cards didn't went farther.

"Maybe because of the magic field, I don't know, why don't you ask them they got upgraded to a level not even Clow was able off, if what you said was right, then the 'Rayearth cards' can give you a straight answer" Li stated.

"Maybe" Sakura said, no one noticed how she suddenly winced, squinting her eyes shut for a second, then focusing them to her left, aimed to the roof of the school and narrowing her eyes in anger and frustration, all in less than a second.

In that same amount of time her head recoiled to one side, all while a metallic 'clang' echoed around her and her friends and familiars.

Then she blinked, reaching for her head and rubbing the side of her forehead, showing a slight reddened spot, she shook her head, and then narrowed her eyes in anger, scaring the hell out of her boyfriend who was just in her line of sight because of what he saw.

In that precise moment Syaoran Li didn't saw Sakura Kinomoto and her usual gentle, yet naïve eyes.

No, he saw instead someone who had replaced his girlfriend with something else, her green eyes were slowly being taken over by gold yellow, almost glowing on its own.

"…The Time" she hissed angrily, and the rest knew no more.

* * *

Raina cursed under her breath, it was happening way too fast, she was adapting and learning her powers at a faster rate than the other rayearths, not even the Rayearth of fire and wind, who live in really hostile worlds haven't reached the level of growth she was now, and to boot she had diamond skin.

She couldn't believe it, the little information about the Rayearth of earth barley mentioned something about near impenetrable skin, before Sakura was a prime target to particularly any kind of weapon they had in their arsenal, even the 'death shot' which she had taken for herself as a trophy.

Currently her current weapons, even the experimental one that they brought as a 'just in case' could be the only thing that could actually take Sakura out.

Two problems, one, it's too big, two, it will cause an insane amount of collateral damage, in dumb terms, they brought a nuke.

Which of course went against all Neurion stood for, Naira didn't care if fifty people died, as long as their target was down, that was that mattered the most.

That's why she took the shot, while her sniper rifle was not on par with Neurion's current one, and her skills with a rifle were not to par with his own, her Machinos nature allowed her to compensate, and easily nail a headshot on Sakura…

Only to see the needle like round made of titanium being flattened on the side of her forehead, leaving just a reddened spot.

Then she simply vanished, one second she is there, then she vanished, simply blinks out of existence, to the shock of her and the people around the Rayearth knight, Raina swears she saw Sakura mutters, 'The Time' before blinking out of sight.

Now here she was, shocked because a Tier 2 world had somehow a time displacer, and a powerful one it seemed, as the most advanced and small Time displacer allowed a five second stop to the time-continuum around the user, before requiring an hour of recharge, bending the laws of time and space IS energy taxing.

"Where are you?" Naira would forever hate to say that, as it got answered.

"Right behind you"

* * *

The moment Sakura used The Time, she knew her magical power, just as Li had predicted, had skyrocketed, as she stopped the time for fully five minutes, all while the aged avatar form of The Time advanced with her to the spot the sniper had taken the shot.

"Don't let anger could your mind child" The Time, perhaps one of the first cards to fully spoke to Sakura, spoke to her.

"That sniper could have easily hit Tomoyo-chan or Li-kun, or my brother, or Mei-Ling, or Yukito, or anyone else, I have the right to be angry!" Sakura snarled.

"Being angry now it's right, but do not let it consume you, it only leads to pains like no others"

"I know…I dreamed his life" she said, a little too silently, The Time, and by extension every card knew what she was referring to, a dream she had before entering school a dream where she saw the harsh life the Rayearth of wind had to undergo, she saw the anger of the people to the knight, and saw how they hurt themselves by just trying to hurt him.

She had been moved by his life, and his desire to carry on, despite the hate, the dream had flashed to her like a speeding highway, but the message was sent, she knew what made a knight, not power, nor hate, but resolve.

"I know…but still" Sakura said, reaching the school and making it to the stairs connecting to the roof.

"I know, is just…my friends…they are on the crossfire" she mentioned, walking to a lazier pace on the stairs.

"Then make your message a little more…harsher" The Time spoke one last time, just as Sakura reached the end of the stairs, to the roof, opening the door, she spotted the woman who sniped her, the woman she punched while Gaia had a slight control over her body that night a month ago.

She had the same white futuristic armor she had seen her last time, a black skin tight jumpsuit that covered her neck to toes, she could easily see what seemed hexagons on the fabric of the jumpsuit, the jumpsuit itself was not the armor, no, the armor itself was over the jumpsuit in segmented parts, her legs were covered up to the knees in a heavy looking, segmented armor to allow movement, the thighs, mostly on the outside were covered as well, her waist held simply a metallic loop of some sort and a pole of some sort attached to it behind her, while her forearms were covered alongside her fingers, like some sort of futuristic, geometrically looking gauntlet, while slim looking pauldrons covered her shoulders, her chest was covered as well, heavily so, bulky, her stomach plate sported what seemed a fist print…her fist print.

Sakura narrowed her eyes as the kneeling woman kept looking at her trough the scope, surely trapped within The Time's power, and frozen just like every person in the world, after all you can't actually hope to stop time on a localized area, it is just impossible.

Approaching the kneeling woman frozen in time, Sakura released The Time, allowing the time itself to flow normally, she smirked when she saw the kneeling woman frantically look through her sniper scope for her, not spotting her. "Where are you?" the woman hissed, Sakura simply couldn't resist it, the woman was basically asking it.

Leaning as much as she could, Sakura hissed on the woman's ear.

"Right behind you"

The effect was instantaneous, the woman turned, rifle still in her arms, trying to get the barrel as close as possible to her chest or head to take a shot point-blank, Sakura gave her no time for that.

With speed that surprised even Sakura, with her left hand she seized the sniper barrel, and with her right hand she first slammed it on the woman's face, hard, making her look at her, then brought it again on a vicious slap that made her look to the horizon, then tossed her away while still holding the sniper rifle, the woman had to let go of the rifle so she could land properly.

Sakura simply looked at the rifle, then at the woman, seeing neon green blood oozing out of her nose and split lip, at one point in her life, Sakura might have felt horrified by have causing that, but not anymore, with a grunt she bended the rifle like it was made of rubber, and twisted it until it was like a pretzel, then tossed it to one side.

"You…that was a gift from my sister!" the woman screamed.

"She has bad taste" Sakura snapped as she rushed at the green haired woman.

Naira had little time to react as Sakura jumped, covering the distance to her and bringing her right hand on a vicious straight she parried with some difficulty with her forearm, now she was glad for the armor on her forearms, she could see that now it was dented.

With a growl she reached for the pole behind her and sweeped at Sakura, the Rayearth of earth let out a yelp of surprise as a plasma hot blade appeared from the tip of the pole, easily ripping her shirt on the midsection.

"That was my favorite shirt, and my only clean set of school shirts!" Sakura snapped angrily, brushing the crystal on her glove and calling forth Nova, "You're going to regret that a lot" and she shot at Naira.

The vice-captain of the royal guard had little time to parry the vicious stab like motion of Nova, Naira noted with some shock how the mithril staff she had was dented slightly by Nova, mithril was perhaps one of the most valuable, sturdiest and hard to mold material found in Crystalia, besides crystalium, a mineral that could be found only with the aid of the Rayearth of earth, AKA the queen.

To see first-hand how a soul weapon damaged one of the sturdiest materials in the known universe, behind adamantium and Crystalium made her edgy, it was a damn blunt staff, with no cutting edges at all, and it had made more damage than a super-heated magnetic plasma blade.

With a war cry she launched herself again at Sakura, the little girl simply began to spin Nova around her, easily blocking each slash, thrust or sweep made to her, only by spinning the staff to her with surprising dexterity.

Naira begins to grow desperate, each blow is countered with ease, a simple girl with no combat experience was laying it down on her, and she was unable to do anything to actually stop her at all, she was being totaled, defeated, and it was infuriating her.

"Dammit stand still!" she roared, bringing the staff on a upwards arc, and slamming it down, Sakura rose Nova up as well, just in time to block the plasma blade and parry it to one side, then she charged, slamming her shoulder to Naira's still damaged midsection, now normally Sakura, lacking the mass the other woman had would be pushed instead of pushing, but now she had a boost of strength, and insane boost, so it was not surprise to her to see Naira fly towards a wall, cracking it upon impact.

"You stay away of me and my family" Sakura snarled, dragging Nova alongside, then grabbing it by the middle, slowly twirling it around.

"As long as you live, no one you know will be safe" Sakura narrowed her eyes at Naira's statement, "You are a danger to every single living thing in this…"

**BAMM!**

Sakura didn't knew what force took her to make her slam her foot on the woman's face, sticking it on the wall behind her, but she did, faintly she do remembers a part of the dream she had, the Rayearth of wind menacing to do the same to his opponent, showing his feet up to his face, but then settled into stabbing him with a massive sword, faintly she remembers it was on a land full of snow and a frozen tower.

Now she did it here, with ease, just to let her message across.

"Stay away of my family…you tell that to your friend" with that Sakura walked away, leaving an unconscious Naira.

On her way down, Sakura looked at the cut on her shirt and sighed, "I hope Tomoyo brought her sewing kit"

* * *

Neurion surveyed the scene, he told naira on repeated occasions, DO. NOT. PISS. HER.

But did she listen, no, she didn't, and now she had her head stuck on a freaking wall.

Perhaps the sweetest girl he had ever met, and if circumstances had not mark the girl for termination grade Omega, would have been a prospect to present his son to date, had kicked Naira's head trough a wall, his vice-captain was KO, and for what he could glance, the skin was beyond local repair, they would have to return to Crystalia and get her to a machinos doctor to fix her up, he really didn't knew if her skull was as damaged as her face, but considering her skull and skeleton is made out of metal, one has to wonder how much a kick can damage a purely metallic skull.

"N-Neurion…help me" Naira hissed, a disadvantage most organics beings possessed, and now the Machinos felt, pain.

"(sigh) I told you don't fight her, but you went against orders (sigh) just hang on I'll get you out"

"…thank…you…"

As Neurion slowly slipped his fallen comrade out of the hole her head was, he noted something off, "Hey, what happened to the plasma staff and the sniper rifle?" he asked, finally releasing Naira's head out of the hole.

The Machinos woman stood there for a full five seconds, looking around, seeing the dusk of the sun, and how night replaced day, then growled, "She took them…just like she did with your deathshot" she hissed in pain and anger.

"She's starting a collection out of our backs…not that I can blame her, we have tried to kill her three times" Neurion said.

"Yeah, just seeing how she survived all three…" Naira said, looking at Neurion straight in the eyes, then sneering, "She's…I don't know, evolving, her skin is as hard as diamond, a round bounced off her skin, it didn't even pierced her skin, she has a very powerful Time Displacer, she easily displaced herself for over two, three minutes tops, and she even has her own soul weapon" Naira said, "Also she has unnatural strength, I haven't see her attacking me with the earth, but we have to assume she has those powers as well"

"So" Neurion said, "A fully armed Rayearth with a grudge with us…Gaia is so pissed at us" he stated as a matter of fact, one that Naira didn't like.

"She is of no…ugh…consequence" Naira uttered, rubbing her head.

"Says the woman who got crumb stomped to a wall by a little girl" he said with a smirk, seeing how Naira's face twisted on a sneer, "Don't look at me like that, you were asking for this" Neurion said, seeing how Naira slowly peeled what seemed the skin of her right cheek, exposing a conglomeration of needle metal connections acting as muscles and nerves.

He found the Machinos actually removing their artificial skin far more disturbing that what lay under their skin.

"I'll need a dermatologist to fix me up, that kick actually damaged military grade skin-graft, and she also compromised several non-essential programs with that kick of hers" Naira said with a sneer.

"Non-essential?" Neurion said with a raised eyebrow.

"25 to be exact, 25 programs damaged to the point of no repair with a single kick…and she wasn't trying to actually hurt me" Naira hissed, blinking once, then sighing, "We might have to actually use it, the DMB" Neurion looked at naira in horror.

"Kill a population of over 200000 just to get a single person, out of the question" Neurion snapped, looking at Naira with a harsh glare.

"Then what do you suggest, let her grow even more, she is at the moment capable of taking down half of the royal guard, she slipped into trance…ancients I'm lucky to be in one piece as it is" Naira hissed with some anger.

"Listen, we brought the DMB as a last resort and because the queen insisted, the brass wasn't too happy to part with one of their 'babies' especially a WMD that is of the size of my head and can erase this city and leave a lifeless crater in its wake" Neurion snapped.

"Well that is the only weapon that has gotten close to the power the Rayearth of fire expelled during the lord wars"

"Look, just lay low and start self-repair protocols"

"That will take me two weeks, three at most to insulate this" naira snapped, pointing at her exposed insides on her cheek, "And to isolate the damaged programs in me" she added.

"Why? I thought they wouldn't be able to damage you" he said.

"The fact remains, like a non-treated wound, it will eventually infect and spread around, so will the programs if I don't isolate them, that alone will take a whole week" Neurion simply stared at Naira with a silent glance, and then sighed.

"Very well, do it, that will give me some time to prepare myself" Neurion said with a sigh, "This mission is already pushing my moral limits to the extreme, I'm going to break my three rules in one go" Naira actually looked at Neurion in shock.

"All three? All three?" she asked in shock, seeing how Neurion nodded, she simply shook her head in disbelieve.

"She is pushing us beyond isn't her?" Naira mentioned.

"It's a Rayearth we're dealing with Naira, if we aren't pushed to the edge by her then we are not facing one of the strongest mortals in the universe, and you know it" Neurion muttered with a bitter look.

"Three weeks…yeah, I can work with that timetable"

_**Three weeks later…**_

Fujitaka stared at Sakura's room, really concerned by his daughter's sudden interest on…guns.

That's right, Sakura Kinomoto had somehow, under the nose of her father, mounted the three weapons she had gotten of Neurion and Naira on her confrontation with them, on the walls of her room.

"Uh…Kero-san…please tell me those are props" he asked to the guardian at his side.

"…no…those are real" Kero clarified, looking at the three weapons, one with each of a history of its own.

The more futuristic of the bunch, and therefore the most fragile one had been the gun that had in fact killed Sakura, the gun had been damaged to the point of no repair (mainly because their world was not as advanced as Crystalia) which was a blessing.

The second gun was a sniper rifle that was now a pretzel; the gun had been the reason why now Sakura knew she had near impenetrable skin, almost to the point of actually being 'bullet' proof, sure as hell she wasn't going to test if her skin was actually bullet proof, but when a sniper rifle round fails to even pierce the skin of the target it is either someone was firing a dud or the target is armored, heavily armored.

The third weapon was oddly another staff, or better said a lance, or a polearm…whatever he never was good with weapons, to him a halberd is in fact a lance and a nodachi is just a large, curved sword.

In any case this weapon the oddest of the trio for one single reason, it was still functional, the blade, which not even he knew, was made of some sort of super heated material that could easily cut anything in their world, but it seemed Sakura was also impervious to it, as her shirt was cut, and the heat of the blade itself barely affected her, unlike her shirt which was beyond salvation, even to Tomoyo's silk like hands.

"Ugh…well at least she isn't beating random people or leading a gang of her own" Fujitaka said, finding some comfort on that little fact.

"I don't know, by all standards, the kid, Mei and Tomoyo would qualify as a gang she is leading" Kero said with a shrug.

"Please don't ruin that Kero-san, the fact that Sakura is in fact hiding something from me is highly disturbing alone…she promised no more secrets" Fujitaka said with a sigh, replaying the conversation with his oldest, of course Toya didn't told him all, just that Sakura was lying in one single thing, oh and that the moment he could he would kill the guy who nearly killed her the night of the accident.

"Ignorance is a bliss" Kero began, turning to Fujitaka, "I guess she thought that this was one truth you would try to fight" the small guardian added.

"I guess is true…still she is breaking her word" Fujitaka said.

"She is still sticking to her bow, she is not going to endanger or worry you at all, in Yukito's words 'dammed if I back up now' man the merging is happening at a faster pace…that or one of the knights personalities is rather forceful" Kero muttered loud enough to Fujitaka hear.

"This merging you mentioned…what it entails?"

Before Kero could answer the small guardian let out a strangled cry of pain, electricity cursing trough is little form, then tossed to the bed, unconscious.

Fujitaka watched this with a shocked look, even more when something shimmered into existence in front of him, a man, an armored man, an armored man with a gun pointed at his chest.

"Bait" was all Fujitaka heard before he felt a sharp pain on his chest, then nothing else.

* * *

"Tou-san, I'm home!" Sakura called, slipping her shoes off and walking in, "Come on guys, there are some sweets on the fridge" she called off, seeing how Li, Mei-Ling and Tomoyo entered the house.

"Thank you Sakura-chan, I hope there is some chocolate cake, I'm carving for one" Mei-Ling said with a hungry smile.

Sakura let a small laugh at the expenses of Mei-Ling's and her sure wide hips thanks to the chocolate cake, "Tou-san, I'm home!" she called again, hearing how her friends began to unpack their books and start their homework's, without her, again.

With a sigh she made her way towards her room, she had to check on Kero, again, sometimes he forgets to even eat when he gets into the games, well sometimes he eats while playing, which is highly disturbing to watch.

As she entered the room she noticed immediately the fallen form of Kero on her bed, "Huh, she got tired" she muttered to herself, approaching Kero and slightly tapping him, it was there that she noted the bruises on his body.

"Kero" she asked more forcefully, this time she got a reaction, a pained groan of the guardian.

Kero-Chan" Sakura asked with some concern.

"**Rayearth, speak now" **

Sakura actually blinked, not believing the voice that had emanated from around her room, the voice of the man who owned the rifle still placed on her wall.

"…What have you done?" Sakura hissed calmly, well anyone could say she was calm, on the inside she was containing herself, let alone she actually causes an earthquake and sinks Tomoeda.

"**What has to be done, you are a…"**

"You realize every time you speak I am closer to finding you?" Sakura hissed.

"**I know, and I hope you realize who I have with me"**

Sakura said nothing, her nostrils flared, a clear universal sign of 'I'm pissed and I'm going to freaking kill you'

"You better hope he is fine or Kami help me I'll play hotchpotch with your chest!" Sakura snapped.

"**Petty threats, come alone"**

Sakura took deep breaths, trying to calm herself; it wasn't working as the house began to shake.

"Holy crap earthquake, I hoped I never lived this here!" she could hear Mei-Ling scream.

Sakura didn't care; she just got angry, really angry.

Then as soon as it came, it stopped, she simply had snapped.

And with her, so did every window in her room.

* * *

Syaoran Li was, in a way, attuned to Sakura in a way only Tomoyo could relate, after all they had been trough during the hunt of the cards, the fights and their eventual relation had made him aware that Sakura, while a girl that seemed to be always on a joyful mood, never remained on that same mood.

Like any other being in the universe she was subjected to any and all changes around her, let it be environmental or emotional they affect her as much as anyone else.

So the moment the house began to shake, he could easily tell that something had upset his girlfriend, little could actually anger her to the point of losing control over her dominion over the land, the last time he witnessed her lose control had been when his mother had led Sakura into believing she would marry Li with another girl, and there was nothing she could do about it, she basically lost it, the very first time ever Li witnessed the wrath of a an angry woman capable of making Tomoeda sink to the ground with a stomp of her foot, also he was witness to the overwhelming power of a Rayearth knight.

The legends telling of their power was no simple tale, they were very real, but did little justice to actually portray the power Li and his mother witnessed that day, suffice to say that his mother, an accomplished enchantress and considered to be Clow's return in some circles was hard pressed into not getting flattened by rock made hands sprouting of the ground like daisies and getting impaled by rock lances Sakura was forcing also out of the ground and sometimes even physically with her own hands, launching them at his mother.

And what made Li's mother more scared to ever anger Sakura ever again was that Sakura had not even completed one of her trials, she was, in simple terms, just learning the ropes of her power full extend.

Li shuddered that day thinking what would she be when she mastered them.

His revering, alongside Mei's screams came to an abrupt halt, alongside with the earthquake when he heard the sound of glass shattering, that was enough to cause him spring into Sakura's room, not far of him Mei and Tomoyo.

When they arrived to Sakura's room they found Kero groaning on Sakura's bed, every glass made material shattered, meaning her windows and the TV, and Sakura, leaning on her dresser, panting like if she had run a marathon.

Li slowly approached Sakura.

The dresser suddenly caved in against some sort of off world force that most surely came out of Sakura herself.

Then she turned, Li, and by extension Mei and Tomoyo bit gasps of shock, Sakura eyes were yellow once more, and she was pissed.

"Don't follow me" was all Sakura said as small chibi wings appeared on her feet, flanking her Achilles heels, and then she jumped, tearing a portion of the wall that was unfortunate enough to meet her left arm.

"Oh snap" the trio groaned, Li with a little more feeling, whatever had pissed Sakura was not going to have a good day, hands down.

There was still one question nagging them, what caused her to snap?

_**That night…**_

Neurion remained in the position Naira had seen him in the last two hours, leaning on a pillar, keeping a watch on their charge, the father of a Rayearth, she of course didn't had reservations on the plan, anything to get the knight of earth was valid, if they had to kidnap her dad to lure her then so be it, in a mission morality passes to the last plane, only success is accepted.

Of course the father of the Rayearth had recovered consciousness about an hour ago, and had settle, unlike other kidnapped before, instead of curse them, to glare them, it never worked, but she was thankful he was keeping himself quiet.

She knew why Neurion had chosen this location; this…abandoned building, perhaps one of the very few abandoned structures on this little hamlet, a feat on its own, as cities of this size usually have more abandoned structures to hide, the lack of criminals or anger, or anything violent makes her…edgy, this place is peaceful…too peaceful.

"…She's here" Neurion said, his yellow eyes darting around, looking for the Rayearth, "She is close, don't lower your guard Naira" he commanded.

"Yeah I…"

**CRACK!**

Naira looked down, seeing a pair of hands holding her by the ankles, one of the hands having a white glove with a crystal…

"Oh elders not again" she moaned, then screamed when she was dragged downwards, right in front of a stupefied Neurion.

The next thing Neurion hears or knows is Naira screaming in pain, unholy amount of pain, the sounds of something blunt impacting, several times, hard, more screaming, then…

**CRACK!**

Naira emerged out of the floor, brutalized, her armor cracked and her artificial skin was more damaged than before, she was obviously in pain, or was as she surely shut down her nerve receptors.

Neurion simply narrowed his eyes, reaching for his belt and tossing a small metallic ball to a wall, he did this in time before the ceiling over him and in front of him caved in and he was tackled by a very pissed Sakura trough the ground and to the lower level.

Neurion grunted in pain as he was speared to and trough the ground, then lifted with such ease and tossed to a column that shattered upon impact, Neurion rolled on his back, recovering fast enough to dodge and enraged Sakura who was swinging Nova like a bat and shattered a wall upon impact.

Neurion noted with some shock how Sakura's eyes were yellow gold, and full of rage, she was pissed, part A was complete.

"Hmm, you certainly are HHUUMMPPPP!" Neurion grunted in surprise when a square pillar emerged and met his groin, too hard, too fast.

"…You talk too much" Sakura snapped, not even phased for what she did, instead she added even more pain by upper cutting Neurion and sending him through the roof, again where he once was.

Again on the floor, Neurion looked at Fujitaka, the man looked shocked, not that he could blame him, apparently this was not his sweet daughter.

"_Yeah right, sweet my ass" _Neurion thought as he stood up, wincing and trying to isolate the pain of his family jewels getting almost shattered, it wasn't easy, but he was dammed if he let a runt like that girl beat him.

His train of thoughts died out alongside the pain on his groin as Nova impacted on his stomach on a stabbing motion, lifting him easily and ramming it to the ceiling, there she dragged him a little, grinding his armored back and pulling sparks by the friction, he grunted in pain as she did this, and screamed when she somehow slammed him to the ground, his body easily reaching three floors below the one Sakura was before he lost momentum and landed roughly on a more solid and not breakable ground.

Coughing up blood, Neurion looked up on the hole, spotting no one looking over him, with a groan he tried to stand up, only to groan when Sakura lifted him up by the plate of his chest, "I told you" she began, dropping Nova to the ground, Neurion would have attacked…

**SLAP!**

"Did you just slap me?" Neurion stated in shock, ignoring the pain in his body, now focused to his cheek, pain that repeated at least several times as Sakura began to slap him, hard, on his cheeks, without stopping, each slap stung more and more, then she stopped.

"…Is that…all…you…got?" he panted, dazed by each skull shattering slap, Sakura answered with a furious uppercut to his chest, the plate of his armor broke as he flew through the hole and met the ceiling, again where it all began.

Sakura stared at the man, narrowing her yellow eyes, she was about to follow with her attack when something caught her attention, lying on the ground where Neurion had been, a slim…something, while the edges were silver, and square shaped, the center glowing blue, this drove the attention of the rage driven Sakura who walked to it, kneeled and picked it up, instantly her eyes widened, then looked upwards, a small frown on her face.

On the ground, away of Sakura, Neurion slowly stood up, then fell to his knees, slowly huffing in pain, he had to, Sakura for all intents and purposes had roughed him up so bad his armor and NW had ruptured, at the same time, while breaking his armor was not a feat many can boast about, the NW or as many other people of the army had called it, the 'jumpsuit' was nearly indestructible, only the most powerful anti-materiel weaponry and crystalium laced daggers could actually pierce it, vibro-knifes could cut it up, but never reach the skin, the NW was also really, really, really expensive, so expensive that only ten people in Crystalia owns them, he being one of them, and only because the queen actually paid for it, after all the captain of the royal guard, her royal guard, will have the very best.

To her to rupture the NW alone with brute strength was unheard of…

Then again she was using a soul weapon, those things are the only know material capable of cutting clean crystalium and adamantium, together, in one swing, regardless of the shape of the soul weapon, hell there was a story of a knight who used a war hammer to slice those two materials, point, slice, no crush, slice.

He looked around, spotting the father of Sakura, Fujitaka if his intel was right, looking at him with a silent frown, disapproval? Rage? No…pity.

Pity for him? Or pity for his daughter?

Then he felt her, landing behind him, oddly enough he didn't felt more pain, as he had learned, she comes near him he start to hurt…everywhere.

"…You are a hypocrite you know that" Sakura spoke, catching Neurion off-guard, he didn't turned around, he wouldn't give her that pleasure.

Then something landed in front of him…a holo.

His family holo to be precise.

"You are a father, a husband…and you attack someone with a family as well…hypocrite" Sakura sheeted, slowly rounding the kneeling Neurion, like a prey being rounded by the predator.

"Hypocrite…I am not…" Neurion gasped.

"You are…I can feel it, I can see it" Sakura sheeted, "I don't know how, but I know, you don't want to fight, but you fight nonetheless, you didn't want to shoot me that night, but you did…all for what? Oh yes…mission" Sakura hissed.

Neurion growled at Sakura, she didn't paid mind, "…they broke you…didn't you…I can see it in your eyes, now you are broken…but in that picture…you're whole" she hissed, looking at the picture as well, there it was, Neurion smiling at the photographer, in his shoulder a woman was visible, hugging him from behind, smiling as well, and on his arms was a baby, gurgling happily on his father's arms.

"You are a father…willing to cause pain to another father…I should…I should…" Sakura panted, Neurion could see how she was barely controlling her anger, she was trying her hardest to not let go of her control.

He couldn't have that, he needed her angry.

"I want you out of my life, out of my city, away of everyone, back on your home, you and…that _girl"_ Sakura seethed, making him narrow his eyes.

"I won't do that" he had to say it, he couldn't leave, all depended on this victory, he had to win, they had to win, she had to die.

"You will" Sakura said, looking at her dad, then slightly smiling, "You don't have a choice…your queen is not my queen, her orders don't matter to me…walk away" with that she left Neurion behind, walking towards her still bound dad.

Neurion simply glared at Sakura's back, balling his fists tightly, _"This can't end like this, not like this…I have to go back, to him…to them…now"_ he thought as he reached for his belt, then pulled a small detonator, looking at the device with the upmost seriousness required.

"Your body is still generating adrenaline" Neurion gasped, Sakura didn't paid him mind, "Adrenaline is a sub-product of anger, and it lingers even after anger itself has subsided, in your case you're still swimming on adrenaline" he added, Sakura still walked towards her father.

"Usually adrenaline dampers the nervous system, numbing the body to pain received and generated and keeping the body working even on extreme conditions…but that can be reverted" the click of a button actually made her look to Neurion, the next thing Sakura or Fujitaka know is that an orb stuck to a wall suddenly fires a red bolt of energy towards her, impacting her cleanly on the chest, at first she didn't felt nothing, hell she shrugged it off, then she began to pant, then fell to her knees.

Next thing Fujitaka knows is that his little girl is on a fetal position, her eyes slowly loosing luster, and for sakura, growing heavy.

"I really…wanted to avoid using this" Neurion said, grimacing as he slowly stood up, his body groaning and protesting him for not push it beyond.

"…Sakura-chan…what have you done to my daughter?" Fujitaka spoke for the very first time ever since his capture, Neurion noted the hate and anger directed to him by the father, he understood it, he was also a father, yet he was a soldier first.

"Nothing permanent I assure you" Neuron said, "Just that she brought this on herself…she should had let herself die that night, all would have been best…for all of us" Neurion spoke softly.

"To you maybe, but that's my daughter you speak off!" Fujitaka snapped.

"As I said, better for everyone, you think she can control her powers? She is the very second Rayearth of earth, no one knows how she will react to combat, she is soft, she is weak wielded, she would get chewed alive in the matter of minutes, and I'm giving her a mercy" Neurion snapped.

"Weak? You looked like the weak to me, how she tossed you like a piece of rag left and right…I don't condone violence, but you brought that on yourself, you and that woman" Neurion sneered at Fujitaka, slowly approaching the man.

"I missed my son's birthday, me and my wife's fifteen anniversary, my brother's wedding, all because of your daughter…Naira was right, your daughter is a danger, to everyone, even to herself" Neurion then stopped, looked at the downed Sakura and then began to walk to her, once near her he grabbed her by the arm and began to drag her away.

"What are you doing? Where are you taking my daughter?"

"To face justice, her mere presence is instigating a rebellion in Crystalia…by putting her down publicly it will kill the rebellion" Fujitaka looked in aghast horror at Neurion.

"That is the fate of the current Rayearth knights, every single one of them will die" he said, dragging Sakura away, or so it seemed.

Fujitaka noted it first and actually went eye wide, Neurion noted it second, but by the time he did something it was too late.

As he began to drag Sakura, he began to struggle, actually struggle, his armor was damaged, and he was hurt, but he was still a grown man dragging a little unconscious girl on the ground by her arm, that alone shouldn't be a chore, but it was slowly becoming one.

It was just a few more inches when he felt Sakura's hand clasping his wrist, then he turned, his mistake, there he noted the small but visible ditch on the ground made by her body by being dragged, then he noted her head, and how her eyes were wide open, defiance etched on them, that and resolve.

"Dad told me I shouldn't go with strangers" she said, Neurion would have scoffed at that childish remark, hadn't his wrist suddenly exploited in pain, looking down he could only stare in dumb shock how Sakura had crushed his armored wrist, bones and all with her petite hands.

Then her other hand shot to him, grabbing his arm, "Want to know what the Rayearth of wind does to strangers who hurt his family?" she asked, of course it was a rhetorical question, even more when she yanked his arm to her, dislocating the arm from the shoulder, with that momentum she shot upwards, her feet impacting his chin with brutal strength, and even continued upward, reaching the ceiling, and still holding Neurion's dislocated arm, then she let him go.

As he fell down, Sakura growled, then shot off the ceiling, ramming her head on Neurion's chest, the impact was critical as his chestplate simply broke into many pieces, exposing his covered chest, and impacting on the ground, rolling like a ragdoll on it before stopping near Naira.

Sakura landed on the ground after that, her hand instantly shooting onward the wall where the orb was, the orb instantly was ripped of the wall and landed on her hand, there she crushed it cleanly, leaving the pieces fall on the gaps of her fingers.

Then, with her hand still extended, called Nova, the staff levitating to her hand and landing smoothly in it, then she began to approach the fallen Neurion, once she was over him she rose Nova over her head, holding it from one end.

"Sakura no!" Fujitaka screamed, "Don't do it! Is not worth it! Please don't!" he pleaded.

"He will keep coming back, keep attacking us, you, me, Toya…everyone, I can't let that happen, I won't let him hurt my friends!" Sakura snapped, her grip on Nova getting tighter.

"Please…don't…don't turn on him" Fujitaka pleaded, his eyes desperate for something, for some of the cards to appear and stop her of doing a mistake.

"I'm not him…I am Sakura Kinomoto, I am a card captor, I am a daughter…I am a Rayearth" and with that she brought Nova down.

_**Sometime later…**_

"Fujitaka couldn't understand it, he was unable to, he didn't get why she did what she did; only that she did it, and there was no turning back, this was what she had chosen.

His daughter kept herself ahead of him, he was unharmed, but a little numb, he knew that he wouldn't be able to stand with his daughter in the future, magic was a concept far beyond him, and so was what lay ahead of his daughter, whatever fate being a Rayearth would take her he knew he would be unable to follow her, the only consolation was that she wouldn't be alone.

He didn't understood why she didn't killed the armored man, instead settled on breaking the floor at the side of his head, only that she did it.

And he couldn't be prouder of her for making the right choice.

Naira's optics were broken, just like every bit of herself, at one side she was able to discern Neurion's fallen form, they had lost yet again, but this time they had bit more that they could chew, and their bodies were paying the price for angering a Rayearth knight.

With a mental command she was able to send a distress call to their main base.

She didn't knew how much she waited, to her it was days, but in reality minutes passed before a green portal opened on one side of their fallen forms.

She fell unconscious as she heard rushed footsteps and the screams for 'medic' and 'mechanic'

One for Neurion, the other for her, they surely needed them both, the Rayearth had won.

Two weeks later she learned her and Neurion's mission was the only failure.

* * *

_**and there you go people, now for a something different, a little special section I called 'restricted files' basically a resume of what has happened in the very first month on all four stories, told in another's point of view, enjoy.**_

* * *

**Accessing Codex Section One database…please wait…**

…

…

**Access granted…**

'_**The Rayearths are proving to be more than dangers to their local enemies, in the very first month the four confirmed knights have engaged in open combat and in some cases open warfare against opposing forces, the circumstances are non-important at the moment, only that with each battle and victory they grow stronger'**_

'_**The Rayearth of wind, fire and water grow at a pace that worries the theorists back in Rendoran Cube, especially the last intercepted reports of their assigned hunters before losing complete contact with them (in the case of the water and fire hunters both bio-signs have flat-lined, the wind hunters simply dropped contact and bio-signs still show active vital signs, assume defection, approach with caution)**_

'_**All four knights show unnatural powers not tied to their Rayearth powers, the wind knight, Codenamed 'Maelstrom' is exceptionally fast and versed on stealth, sabotage and guerrilla warfare, coupled with a knowledge of traps and weapons and nearly endless stamina alongside arcane abilities that all natives of the planet share, to further the problems he has a whole village of equally adept individuals backing him up, a problem on its own, the wind hunters hacked reports set in stone that constant conflict in the world has allowed the knight to grow accustomed to his Rayearth powers, all of them, reaching a balancing on all fields'**_

'_**The knight of water, codename 'Tsunami' on the other hand has grow more accustomed to his telekinetic powers, but has been seen favoring ice like powers more than his inherited water powers, seems able to handle all sorts of advanced weapons and seems adept to hit-and-run tactics befitting his small, lanky physique, alongside support of strange green energy he emits from the palms of his hands to overwhelm one or many targets, his ability to fly, become invisible and intangible, and thus pass this trait to whatever he touches, alongside the ability to create a green shield of energy similar to his green rays makes him an enemy of care as all skills are not catalogues in any kind of know living being in existence'**_

'_**The knight of fire, codename 'Inferno' seems the only knight to keep up the standard set to the knight in general, incredibly powerful and able to shrug pain and crippling wounds, the danger of this knight lays on the fact he has taken that destructive power ten levels up, adept on both hand-to-hand combat and a adept or master level swordsman, the knight of fire can also fly like the knight of water, or to an extend levitate, able to level buildings with a swing of his sword and according to one of the last intercepted reports of the hunters, capable of summoning a strange skull mask that enhances all his powers, Rayearth included, according to an ally of the hunters prior to their untimely demise, the Rayearth of fire is not even grasping his true potential'**_

'_**The knight of earth, codename 'Pillar' is an enigma on its own, observed by hunters Neurion and Naira after they recovered consciousness report a plethora of abilities as bizarre as the knight itself, able to canalize Mana and use it in the form of 'cards' the knight primary form of attack is to call forth magical avatars that can, apparently affect the caster or target in a variety of ways, the exact ways are not accounted for, but according to Naira the knight has a powerful time displacer at her disposal, and all these powers seemed to have improved once these 'cards' were absorbed into the glove, allowing a better control over them, her Rayearth skills remain standard, and unlike the other knights, she hasn't completed any trial as of yet, but its assumed she will in the coming months'**_

'_**Due to the fatality of two full teams, the defection of one and the disaster that was both the recovery of Naira and Neurion after their last engagement with codename 'Pillar' and their healing, alongside the lost of several sensitive equipment and weapons, it has been agreed upon by the Queen to not send anymore teams to either of the four worlds, three of the four worlds know of Crystalia and show extreme protectiveness to the knights whereabouts, 'Pillar's' world seem to be the idyllic 'peace' world, as record show they haven't had a war or major conflict in the pass fifty years, but show an incredible amount of Mana users, most of them able to manipulate Mana for combat'**_

'_**The director firmly believes in neutrality up to this point, the Queen might not like it, but we are Section One, we are the shadow behind the queen and the knights, we act beyond her grasp, the knights are out of the reach for the moment, conjectures and theories can only be brought for the time being, only time will tell to which side we must help'**_

**End transcript….**

* * *

_**so, like it? hate it? let me know, you are my greatest criticts, your reviews feed me...that was too dramatic isn't it?**_

_**also I forgot to mention, there is a poll regarding the last characters who will join in the final story, so far Naruto of the Manga Naruto, Danny of Danny Phantom, Ichigo of the Manga Bleach, Sakura of the manga Card Captor Sakura, Shinji and Asuka of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Will of W.I.T.C.H. are confirmed, the poll is to either see if i add two more characters, just one of the two or none, your vote counts, and don't let anyone tell you anything else.**_

_**so with that I'm off, Hypn0s wish you all a good day, and in case I can't say it before, Merry Christmas and a Happy New year way ahead of time to my fans.**_

_**See ya around.**_


	5. 4: Gravity

_**hello my loyal, and patient readers, it is I! Hypn0s, with yet another chapter of Sakura The Pillar.**_

_**again i apologize for the delay of updates, some of my older readers would note this, as my very first rayearth stroy, Naruto The Maelstrom, was update almost weekly, the reason of course is because i'm taking an already anime that it's over, in this case, Sakura Card Captor, and figure what would happen in the future if I add this, unlike in the other three stories, which are set on the beggining or middle of the canon lines, unlike here, this starts at the end, meaning i have to work on my own imagination, which i admit is slowly diminishing with each passing day, and then comes back full force...when i'm neck deep on work, there iI have to work with I can, hence the longer updates, that and some stories I have been reading up to this point, I get distracted quite easily.**_

_**That and Youtube, and games, and hearing and generally laughing at the misery of the stars once one see their epic fails, and manga, one cannot forget manga.**_

_**well, there you have it, on another note, now that i'm rolling back, expect closer updates, in nearing the end here guys, so expect intense chapters, the poll for the last two characters will be closed once the last chapter of Sakura The Pillar, named Epilogue, as usual, comes out.**_

_**oh, as a small teaser, one of the knights here will make an appearance, and no, i'm no telling, I'm that of a jerk.**_

_**now without any delay, to my undying fans, chapter 4 of Sakura The Pillar.**_

* * *

**CHAPTER 4: GRAVITY**

_**Four months before calling to Crystalia…**_

"_Sakura…do you think all that has happened has been because of…I don't know…fate? Destiny? Someone trying to screw with us?"_

"_I don't know Danny, I truly don't know, so far things have just…fallen around in place"_

"_You think? Shinji going ape-crazy on his old man's ass and those freaky white EVA's, Will basically pulling a Naruto and beating some sense into Elyon, which I got to say was kind unnecessary considering that Elyon was more than willing to give up"_

"_Danny, she tried to blast you up"_

"_You do realize that I wailed at her later, and the wall behind her for that attempt right?"_

"_Maybe, still I gotta say to you…this doesn't feel like fate or destiny"_

"_Oh? Then how it feels like?"_

"_Gravity"_

"…Well, at least nothing blew up this time"

It had become something standard in her dreams so far that each dream had to end with a 'boom' in quite a literal sense.

This dream was also one of the very first dreams in which she actually had a name to the many faces appearing in them, well three to be honest, Danny, Shinji and Elyon, and an unknown name to an unknown face, Naruto.

She could relate Danny to one of the people who had been appearing constantly on her dreams, alongside with the blond and the tall one, she couldn't put a face to the name Shinji, but she knew that guy would be with them as well, as for Elyon, it seemed she was an enemy, one they faced and from which Danny got hurt in the subsequent fight.

She shook her head, not believing how easy was to her to think about fights, long ago she would have freaked on the concept of combat, but here she was, willing to even fight if needed, to hurt, to…protect, she wasn't going to engage in random fights, prudence was still her calling card, she would rather try to talk her way out of a fight or any conflict, but if things didn't let it other way then she would fight.

Rubbing her hands together she reminisced of what she had done to those two who had kidnapped her dad, she had been pissed, angry, she had never been that angry, but the thought of her family hurt, taken away, it just…made her snap, well that was the word Mei-Ling had used to describe her when they had entered her room just seconds before she went outside, trough her window, chasing that guy.

Shacking the thought of her dad possibly hurt, and thankfully that never happened, Sakura rose up of bed to start a new day, after all today was Saturday, this was the only day she worked full time, and she had a lot of deliveries to make.

_**That same day, three hours later…**_

"**Kinomoto what's your status?"**

"My status? I'M BEING CHASED FOR NO APARENT REASON THAT'S MY STATUS!"

On the other end of the line, Akane and Big T shared an uneasy look; they knew that dammed USB would bring nothing but problems.

On Sakura's end however, things were now going as smoothly as she wanted, or expected of her day, being chased by a black car all over Tomoeda for a damn USB wasn't exactly her way to pass the day.

"**Sakura cut the next corner, you can lose them in the traffic"**

Seeing a solid plan Sakura followed the order, instantly turning left and heading towards the most transited zone of Tomoeda, she was sure to lose them there, she hoped.

Reaching the intersection she instantly entered the traffic, zig-zag-ing her way into a traffic jam that was normal on Saturdays, she slowed down, seeing how the black car had to stop and relent on the pursuit, she slightly smiled, another obstacle gone.

"Sakura here, lost them in the traffic" Sakura reported with a smile.

"**Nice, okay I'm tracing you a new route of delivery we should…hold on…ah crap"**

"Akane, what's going on?" sakura asked, lazily rolling around the traffic jam with ease, not even worried by the guys she left behind.

"**I intercepted a call that just came or your zone…oh snaps Sakura get out of there! 5-0 heading to your position!"**

"Hoe!" Sakura exclaimed, immediately she tripled her pace, moving away of the traffic and basically leaving the zone as fast as possible, 5-0 being the code name for the police and their patrols.

True the way they worked it was inevitable that they wouldn't cross paths with the police, as many people, mainly drivers saw the couriers of Big T as mere delinquents, so far Sakura was the only one of the couriers under Big T's orders yet to have a rap sheet open on her name.

That didn't mean however that Sakura wasn't know among the patrols of the TPD.

"What the 5-0 wants with me, I'm carrying an USB not a gun!" Sakura snapped.

"**Don't know but they are actively looking for you, Big T just called the customer, they agreed to stall the delivery until the heat dies out, head to your 'safehouse' and lay low until we call you back"**

"Ugh…of all…okay…try to trace me a safe route, one with preferences of losing them on narrowed spaces" Akane didn't know, but narrowed spaces allowed Sakura a more perfect use of her new power over earth itself, meaning geomancy.

Also cars would be unable to follow her on small spaces, that didn't meant the officers wouldn't, whatever that USB had recorded had to be very precious to actually call the police for her.

"**I got an escape route traced, head to the next corner, turn left then turn right on the very first alley you see, keep going straight until you reach a fork in the road, then turn right again, that should get them off your trail, at least for some time"**

Nodding at that information Sakura instantly cut transmission, Akane had given her all what she needed, now the rest was to her and the cards, and her various powers, who knew that having telekinesis could be so much fun?

With a flick of her wrist The Dash appeared on her left hand, immediately it fragmented and materialized on her Roller-Skates, and immediately gained a speed boost.

Before The Dash would give the user a small speed boost, tripling the base speed of the user for some time, as The Dash could only keep this up for some time, with the upgrade The Dash was able to increase the base speed of the user ten times and go as long the magic of the user permitted it, she had learned this when she had used it on Li and Tomoyo, while Li was able to run 500 meters in 5 seconds flat and look slightly tired, Tomoyo covered that same distance in the same time, but since she lacked the same amount of magic Li had, she had ended up tired as she had run a marathon and hadn't drink water at all.

With Sakura it was different, she didn't knew, and neither Li or his mother, but she seemed to have an inexhaustible source of magic, Li's mother had referred to it as 'recycling' her magic, but not even she could tell, in any case, unlike Li, she could keep with the use of The Dash for a long time, five minutes was her mark, she didn't went long because the first time she used it she broke several speeding laws, reason why she is wanted by the TPD patrols if she passed them with her rollers on, one can only imagine the problems she has when going to school.

Suffice to say Tomoyo no longer joins her on her daily walks to school, instead she and every single student, including High School students wait for her, or better said wait for the spectacle that is seeing her outrun police patrols with just roller-skates.

Bets are when the police will actually capture her, when she will hit one in the groin, with her skates, when her boyfriend will try to hit one of the cops, and when the cops will start using road spikes to stop her and using Rhinos, or super charged trucks.

Mei-Ling is making a killing with the odds of Sakura escaping.

As Sakura made her way towards the alleys that composed many of the streets between downtown Tomoeda, she idly noted, or rather felt how several presences simply…appeared, like if they had waited for her to walk in the alley, and then just…came to be.

Li's mother had noted that Sakura seemed to realize of the presence of nearly every single being around her, or at least beings that were touching something of her element, meaning earth, dirt, metal was also considered a mineral due to the many materials that compose it, not to mention of the impurities within, this gave Sakura an 'echo' feeling, like a bat or a sonar, she could easily know where people around her were, as long they were on ground, obviously if they were floating she wouldn't 'feel' them at all.

Tomoyo had come with the clever name of echo-casting, as with every step or touch made by someone, an echo would be made, imperceptible to everyone but Sakura.

As she made her way into the alley, the presences began to close by, slowly closing her only means of return, true she could easily use The Time and slip by, but according to Li, her use of the upgraded card was so strong that magical beings everywhere, not even near the affected area would feel the use of the card.

"You know…that day you ruined a thousand yen hair-do" Sakura immediately stopped, eyes wide, recognizing immediately the voice that had echoed on the alley, it was the same voice of the person that had attacked her on her home that day, the woman who belonged to The Pact…who had hurt her family.

"You're the one to talk, your head damaged my ceiling" Sakura countered, "I just hope your thousand yen hair-do softened the blow"

The soft sound of soils meeting ground alerted Sakura of the presence of the woman, turning around her eyes trained themselves on the woman.

The long white summer dress would have deceive anyone that she was an innocent looking woman, but not Sakura, the woman had flawless skin, a face of innocence and the eyes to add it, big blue eyes, as the sky, with beautiful blond hair tied in two ponytails.

This woman would have been the epitome of perfection and beauty, had not been for the ugly sneer set on her lips, that and the black left eye.

"It didn't" the woman said, slowly advancing at Sakura, there Sakura noted the same expensive designer's shoes she had seen on the woman when she had stuck it to the ceiling.

"So…you're here for revenge…I think I told your boss to skip town" Sakura snapped, hands slowly closing to one another, preparing to release Nova.

"And you think we would hear the words of a snot-brat like you, regardless of how powerful you are, you are simply that, a child" the woman said, slowly cracking her neck left and right, Sakura narrowed her eyes, easily feeling the three other presences behind her.

"Trapping me on an alley? Really? That's your grand plan? I'm disappointed" Sakura said, crossing her arms over her chest, she had learned that crossing her arms was an easy way to both distract her opponents and call forth Nova in a flash if she wanted it.

The woman didn't seem intimidated by her at all or angry by what she had said.

"And you think I will fall for those stupid taunts you got another thing coming" the woman said, blue eyes focused on light green, "Oh by the way…have you kept my USB safe and sound?" Sakura actually blinked, slowly reaching for one of the pockets on her vest, and pulling out a single, panda shaped USB, the chibi panda stared at Sakura with a smile.

"Mine and my husband's entire essay is there, you know, a whole note for college, were due to graduate in four months, Suma Cum Laude if we get the essay right" the woman spoke, Sakura simply narrowed her eyes, stared at the USB and then crushed it, grinding the plastic material to dust, much to the shock of the woman.

"Oops" Sakura said, letting the remains of the material slip of her fingers like sand, "Sometimes I forget how strong I am" she added with a small smirk that was not familiar on her face.

The woman in front of her just narrowed her eyes, "You're going to regret that"

"Am I?" was all Sakura said as she let the four approach her, or better said rush at her, closing her eyes she slammed her skates to the ground, instantly the four charging people were stopped on their tracks as massive rock walls emerged in front and behind her, blinding them of their goal and stopping them on their tracks.

"Damn those Rayearth powers to hell" the woman snarled, even more when she heard the next words.

"I'm sure your leader thought the same, The Trough"

She knew all about the cards, their powers, the ability to basically bend the reality in some cases, to break several laws of existence, the utter loyalty they had to their wielder, for being cards they were more loyal than a dog she summarized.

She also knew that only very, very few artifacts in the world could cancel the powers of the cards, of course that number must have been reduced to single digit numbers after their upgrade to Rayearth cards, now that's a mouthful name she believes, but she can't deny the tremendous power the cards now posses, or the power Sakura herself now exudes.

She had to be stopped, otherwise she would master her new powers and then…then she would be unstoppable, there was little to go in reference regarding the Rayearth knights, but if stories were led to believe, then when Sakura truly masters her powers and herself…then she would be unstoppable, not even the high warlocks would be able to stop her, together.

Not to mention what would happen if the other knights would come to join her, if their plan was to succeed, they had to stop her, to gain control of the cards now!

Pulling a cellphone, the woman brought it to her ears and began to speak.

"Akane, I want a sit-rep every minute of her position, she is going down today"

* * *

Sakura sped up, dodging pass biers every once in a while, using The Through to escape at the beginning had seemed to be a good idea, but now it seemed that had been a bad idea in a series of bad ideas.

The moment she had left the building, and behind her several shocked employees and guards, wondering how a eleven year old girl was able to slip by a building which only two entrances were the main and emergency exit, the three men that had came with the woman in the white dress had somehow know where she had went, kept following her with great accuracy, despite the fact she had a t least two blocks of distance between her and them.

Something was up.

Before she was never this suspicious, or hard thinking, she had been a girl that went with the flow, somehow she had been able to survive the hunt of the cards doing that, thinking on her feet and getting help.

That was then, this was now, different, a whole different game she hates to admit, one that so far is pissing her off, again.

She found odd that she would get angry at any moment notice, well not at any moment, more like at any moment one of her family members, friends are endangered, she has always been selfish in that regard, her friends, her family, no one else, hers, she knew she was thinking childish, but dammit she was eleven she could think childish as long as she wanted dammit…well she was acting more moodier than usual that was certain, not that she is complaining, because it allowed her to see the world on a different set of eyes.

The eyes of someone who had died.

As she made more distance of her pursuers as possible, even considering using The Dash to deter them of following her, she wondered something.

Akane had told her the 5-0 was following her, yet she had yet to see hide or hair of them, which was no good, cops were not exactly the kind to hide during a pursuit, especially for someone who had broken several traffic laws on her roller-skates alone.

She had a bad feeling, and before and after the attempt to her life, when she had a bad feeling, bad things tend to happen…to her to be precise.

Reaching for her vest she activated her radio, and immediately pressed the ear piece on her ear, getting ready to talk.

**"_Sakura is Tsubasa Ave, number 45, just stopped in front of a flower shop, you have five minutes to reach her, Big T is out so I'm all alone, reach her before he comes back to have a sit rep of her current whereabouts, I can only keep the cop lie for so long"_**

The voice of Akane made her heart stop, her blood felt like liquid ice running on her veins, it hurt, it hurt a lot.

Now it made sense how they knew where she was all the time, she was telling them where she was, following the signal of her radio…

"_Wait" _she thought in some shock, her radio had been off ever since they began pursuing her, how she was able to trace her with no actual way to do so, it was illogical, then it hit her.

"_The vest!" _ in panic she began to lose the vest off her, removing the radio of her along the way, she didn't forgot she had the radio on, right now she didn't care, Akane was with them.

Looking around and seeing there was no one to bother her at all, or witness whatsoever, she took the vest, began to spin and then tossed it away as hard as possible, which turned to be really, really hard, the vest sailed through the air, falling away of her sight in record time, she didn't care, Akane was with them.

She had trusted her, just like any courier would trust their radio manager, she was their ears in the outside, warning them, guiding them, but not to her, she had betrayed her, betrayed her to The Pact.

With a small scowl on her face she began to roll away, heading to the courier shop.

Akane had a lot to answer to her.

* * *

Akane stared at the sudden movement of Sakura's tracker device.

At the beginning she knew that Big T meant well, he cared for Sakura, not only because she was his best courier, and the fastest, but because she reminded him of his own sister, and the way she had died, in a car accident.

He wanted to know where Sakura was during a delivery, just to make sure it didn't happened again, what he considered a precaution she now considered it a boon.

She didn't felt bad for doing this to Sakura because she was doing it for her own good, the power she know wielded was corrupting her slowly, maybe no one, not even the leader realized, but the cards were corrupting her, slowly destroying her, they might think the cards were power given shape and tangible form, but she knew better, the cards were evil.

Clow Reed was an example of this, he never settled, he was obsessed with the cards, up to the point of actually rejecting a possible companion, the cards drove everyone up to the point of obsession, she could not allow that, not on Sakura.

She knew the fate of Sakura if she was captured by The Pact, separation of the ether, the realm that gave her them magical powers she and some people have, such separation would hurt, a lot, but not as much as being unable to live a full life, the cards of course, being recipients of Sakura's power would be used to fuel it, a far too honorable ending for such abominable creations in her opinion.

"She is moving northeast, bypassing every obstacle in sight, must be using one of the cards, keep following, she is going on a straight line" she said, turning off the signal with her comrades before Big T arrived, last thing she needed was for him to blow her cover and think she was with Flashlight…well technically she was, she was with The Pact, Flashlight was a front for some operations where exact subtlety beats up robbing something at night.

Resting her back on the seat, she began to rub her forehead, before Big T had an excellent radio controller, even more than her, but the moment they had learned Sakura Kinomoto would join Big T's couriers they had arranged a little 'accident' for the guy, suffice to say that the guy would recover in the next year or so.

Rubbing her hands together, she thought of what to do now, no one knew who she was working for, which was good, but if someone where to find out…

"What are you doing?"

Akane instantly perked up in sheer shock, looking back she saw Asura leaning on the frame of the door, the tanned skinned teenager had his eyes slightly narrowed, unlike several times she had seen him, he was in a way like Sakura, you would not spot them without a smile on their faces.

"Nothing Asura-san, just keeping Sakura away of the 5-0's" she said with a dismissing glance, she didn't noted in that way how Asura eyes narrowed even more.

"Don't try to snake your way out of this situation Akane the Crimson"

That name made her stop on whatever she wanted to say, she turned around, glaring at Asura, her blue eyes focused on his brown eyes.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"It was not hard…after all" he said, reaching for something under his shirt, pulling it out, he exposed a single copper made spiral medallion that hung of a single black string tied to his neck.

To the average Joe eyes, it would be a cheap looking medallion, made out of copper instead of silver and a string instead of a chain, but to her it meant something else, it was a symbol.

Opposing forces never meant to face each other until the revealing of the next successor of Clow Reed and master or mistress of his cards, one sought to control the cards and remove the wielder of the picture, permanently if so.

The other sought to protect the wielder and the cards, to nurture his or her growth, so one day he or she would take his or her rightful position as successor of Clow Reed and as leader of the Enchanters of Palomina.

"You…then that means…" Asura nodded, Akane paled.

"Even…Big T?"

"Why you think he would allow a little girl to enter a courier service where is almost guaranteed you will get a lift on the back of a police cruiser and your own rap sheet…he is normal, like her dad, yet he is a trusted one, unlike The Pact we have agents everywhere, eyes everywhere…that's how we knew she had captured the Clow Cards and stared to transform them into Sakura cards" Asura stated.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously, she so badly wanted to melt him into a red pile of nothing.

"Once she did it, we knew we had to move, you weren't that far of course" Asura muttered.

"Of course, you bowed to protect her yet you were unable to help her when we got her family, pathetic" she hissed.

"We would have been more hindrance than help, after all just hours ago she learned her family was kidnapped, she wouldn't trust anyone with an offer of help, so we simply let her do what she wanted, it turned out better in the end, the mistress of the cards AND a Rayearth knight, she has a great, yet hard road ahead of her, we will make sure she is prepared when she had to take that road alone" Asura said, grasping the pendant hanging on his neck, small arcs of electricity traveling on his fingertips.

"You think you can stop me? I am at the top of my game, you are just a whelp, you know nothing of magic, of dedication, of fighting, you are an inconvenience"

If something irked Akane more, was when he smiled, SMILED, even at the face of his possible demise.

"Perhaps I am one I admit, then again I am an inconvenience that just gave Sakura enough time to come and hear our little chat" Akane's blood ran cold even more than before.

"Isn't that right, Sakura-sama?" the moment Akane turns around it's the moment her stomach erupts in pain and also her back as it impacts on the wall, creating a web like crack upon impact.

As she slid to the ground, pain pouring from her back, she was able take a look at Sakura, the strange staff she called Nova on her hands, the master had said that incredibly ancient magic was housed on that very artifact, even more than the magic of the cards.

But she also knew that acquiring that artifact was nigh to impossible, as her master had said, Nova was made out Sakura's own soul, her emotions, her very self, Nova was the physical representation of Sakura's will and soul, there was no way to separate her of the weapon, despite the incredible power the weapon held on its own, the risk of doing it might actually gather the attention of the Guardians, the granters of the Rayearth powers, and even might get them a one way trip facing the other Rayearth knights.

One Rayearth it's bad enough, add another one and it's a catastrophe waiting to happen.

"I trusted you" was all Sakura said as she let Nova vanish in a shower of lights and golden like sparks, all going straight to her glove gem.

"Is it to her, or to me?" Asura asked.

"To both of you" Sakura snapped, looking at Asura straight in the eyes, despite the fact Asura towered over Sakura by several centimeters, the perks of being an adolescent, he felt insignificant while under her gaze.

"Damn, the myths were correct, a Rayearth's gaze CAN stop armies" Asura muttered as he saw Sakura march towards the downed Akane, "Watch it Sakura-sama, she is known for the moniker Akane the Crimson, as in crimson of what's left of her opponents after melting them" Asura warned, Sakura took a deep sight before advancing, Asura now noted that a card was already materialized on her left hand, ready to be released.

"…Why?" she asked, Sakura felt a strange sense of Déjà vu, as she asked the same think to the crystalian agent that attacked and in fact killed her, if for some seconds, and felt that if Akane said that it was 'her mission' she would end up with her head stuck on the wall, like that girl.

"For your own good" Akane said, throwing Sakura out of the loop, that was clearly a new reason for hurting her as far as she knew.

"For my…oh you better explain" Sakura demanded, her eyes hard, Asura really couldn't blame her for that reaction, or the fact Nova had once again taken its place on her hand and was placed to close of Akane's neck, ready to crush it with just one thrush onward.

"See Asura, this is what I meant, the cards…they are already corrupting her, just like Clow" Akane said, not daring to move, lets Sakura takes her movements as a signal of attack, one that she doesn't want to send, she is trying to help her, not fight her.

"Corrupt? Akane I…I don't even know if that's your real name or just a nickname, but you better have a good reason to do what you did and why The Pact didn't heed my warning, I told them to leave Tomoeda, looks like I'm gonna have to be more forceful on my demands" Sakura snapped, anyone that had know Sakura would have instantly recoiled at the expressionless look on her face.

"You can't demand anything of us, no matter if you are the Card Mistress or the Rayearth of earth, we bow to no one" Akane snapped.

"I damn well can" Sakura snapped as forcefully as Akane ever had heard her, the traitor simply shook her head in pity.

"You are so blind, the cards, the power, is blinding you, corrupting you, you can't see what's so clear to me" Akane whispered.

"Oh really, and what would that be?" Sakura asked, eyes burning on Akane's own, the teenage girl had to bit her lip just to not tremble at the stare of the Rayearth of earth, despite the fact Sakura was not canalizing her gold like eyes that Akane knew could easily stop armies dead on their tracks and rather try their luck by jumping of a ravine without parachutes, her current stare was as frightening as it was demoralizing, it was like staring at a train crash happening, and then you realize that one of the trains tore the other apart, and your dad was riding the broken train.

Akane had to will herself not to keep staring at her, let the three extra pairs of…wait what?

Akane had just a second to stare before she willed herself up; she must be delusional, because she is seeing three pairs of eyes staring back at her, behind Sakura, towering over her, glaring at her, _daring_ her to do anything to provoke Sakura.

Sakura and Asura didn't knew what she had seen, only that she had stood up, and that now every single courier of Big T were behind them, every single one of them members of the order of Palomina, every single one of them sworn to protect the heir of Clow Reed with their lives if needed.

"Clow…why you think he never married?" Akane asked out loud.

"The only love of his life turned to be evil and power hungry" Sakura deadpanned, "And oh yeah, other wizards wanting the power of the cards, now I see where those others came, The Pact surely wanting power that doesn't belongs to them, or even understand it" Sakura snapped.

"You know nothing of those times!" Akane all but screamed at Sakura, "Those were dark times to all of us wizards, enchanters, anyone with a will to use magic was hunted down, if it wasn't for The Pact magic as you know it would have vanished, not even Clow would have lived to see the creations of the card hadn't been for us" she snapped.

"And how you repay that? At the beginning you were people willing to shelter all those hunted…then you saw all that power gathered, you all grew greedy, then you became nobles, and integrated in a society that knew nothing of magic, and started to manipulate from the shadows…that's how you got to tangle with Clow and learned of the Clow cards didn't you?" Sakura said with a narrow of her eyes.

"That's not how…"

"Enough" Sakura said, "Opposing sides will always have different tales on how conflicts started, I don't care anymore…go…just go" Sakura said, reaching for Akane's shirt, then pushing her aside of the growing group of Big T's couriers…all members of the order of Palomina.

"Tell him…tell your leader…if push comes to shove…he better hope he's not standing behind a ravine" Sakura warned, "For I won't be afraid to shove" she added, turning away, Akane did the same, so Sakura didn't noted the sad look on her face as she left the courier shop.

Sakura waited five minutes in the rec room, her feet touching the ground and focusing on Akane's retreating echo, once she felt Akane far enough, and also felt the presence of her former pursuers, leaving with her, that Sakura actually stood up, and slowly rolled away.

As she rolled around, she saw the other couriers opening a path to her, out of fear or respect she didn't know, and honestly she didn't care, she just wanted to move away, thankfully they seemed to know this and moved away.

In no time she was already out of the shop, onto the streets, she didn't paid mind to those around her, not even to the two traffic cops that tried to stop her, not that they could, it seemed the world wanted her to be left alone as a mob of people blocked their path.

It wouldn't take long for the lost in thought Rayearth to reach a possible destination, one she found herself staring for some time.

Li's house/mansion.

* * *

Yelan Li wasn't surprised by the fact that Sakura had appeared, unannounced, on her home porch, looking haunted, her eyes betrayed her outer emotions, which were clearly visible.

While her body screamed controlled rage, desire for revenge and an unnatural need to stomp someone's butt six feet under, her eyes told another tale.

Fear, fear for no knowing what might happen next.

She had guessed that The Pact would not back down after Sakura's little display of power against one of their branch leaders, The Pact was as stubborn as powerful, but not as powerful as Sakura when she reaches her true power, what she had done…hell her own knighthood during that night was felt all over the world, any magically attuned individual must have felt the power she now had.

The Pact was fighting a losing war against Sakura, unknown to them the council had already rallied several of their elements to Tomoeda, just to make sure that Sakura was protected, the white knights, the L'ordre du fait de monter, better known as the order of the rose, the красные пальто, or better known as the red coats, and the order of Palomina, one of the few magical orders that had direct ties to Clow Reed, and by extension to Sakura.

Maybe she had come across one of the orders tasked to protect her, not that she needed protection as she was more than able to give any opponent a run for their money, or making them run altogether, but if something she had learned long ago was that when dealing with magic users, and that included The Pact, you had to be very careful, less you pay with your life.

"…What do you know about the order of Palomina?"

"_Straight to the point, one of the other rayearths must be rather blunt to overlap some of her core personality like that"_ Yelan thought with some apprehension, the time she had met Sakura she had seen that Sakura's personality to be the strongest than anyone else she had met, yes she was somewhat shy and somewhat could be scared as easily as a cat and hope to get latched to the roof, but where those kind of habits that made her somewhat strong.

If she was going to become a knight she needed a stronger backbone…one made out of titanium to begin with, Yelan held no hopes that the old Sakura would be able to survive as a knight, this one however…she had hope.

"The order of Palomina" Yelan began, "That's a name I haven't heard in a while" she added, motioning Sakura to follow her, Sakura wanted answers, and if she wanted them she would have to follow Yalen, surely to the library, she seemed to enjoy spending most of her time in it when her daughters were outside doing Kami knows what and Syaoran is in school.

"You know most of Clow's story, well at least most of what Kerberos has told you when you ask him which I assume is little" Sakura had the decency to look lightly ashamed, most of what she knew about Clow Reed was thanks to Kerberos, Yue and a time travel with The Return which ended up giving her just one thing of it.

Clow Reed was lazy as hell, if the creation of The Bubbles was anything to go by.

"Of course you don't know most of his story, which the order itself relates to" Yelan said, "Clow moved here, to Tomoeda when he was twenty-eight, by that time Yue and Kerberos were already created, but had different purposes than the ones they have now, after all the world from 300 years ago was greatly different from ours, to start…"

"Wizards of all kinds were hunted down like animals, yes I know, Kero-chan and Syaoran-kun told me" Sakura said, better said snapped, Yelan detected rather easily the distaste for that info, she didn't turned to face Sakura, instead opting to continue their trek to the library, she didn't need to of course, she knew Sakura must be scowling like hell now.

"Yes, they can attest personally to those days, anyway, he found a home in Tomoeda, far away of he hunts, far away of The Pact, he never trusted them at all, perhaps the only people he truly never trusted, and he trusted a lot of people, even his by then former love, but The Pact, he never truly trusted them" Yelan said, reaching a double oak door and opening it.

Sakura had seen Yelan's library, it was big, a huge room filled with books upon books, most of the stands were filled to the brim, the only reason the room was not two stories high and the stands didn't reached the roof was because the house came like this, and Yelan's personal collection was small, compared, according to her, to other enchanters or magic users of her age and status.

It was still impressive nonetheless.

"Our little story begins of course a month later after he moved to what you know as Tomoeda" Yelan began, "By that time much of Tomoeda was no more than a few kilometers big, a small town with several houses separated by a kilometer, each, that of course began to vanish when more people migrated, mostly magical families looking for sanctuary that didn't involved The Pact" Yelan said.

"Clow was rich, thank that to his parents, dotting kind" Yelan smiled at that, "By that time Clow began to think what to do with all the power he had, and the big house he lived in, and many things he couldn't do in one day" Yelan explained.

"Meaning he was lazy" Sakura said with a small smile.

"Yes, anyway, it would be with the new helping hand, meaning maids and butlers he hired form a local family he would get the inspiration to make the Clow Cards, you see the family he hired were originally gypsies that had been roaming the lands, searching their luck, and had found it on Tomoeda and Clow Reed, but it would be their little girl, a ten year old girl named Palomina who would inspire Clow" she said, going for one of the bookcases, reaching for it she pulled a single book and opened at a specific page, then displaying to Sakura.

"Tell me Sakura…to who this girl resembles?" Yelan said, displaying an old looking painting in the book, one where it was Clow Reed, and near him was a small girl dressed in a white sundress…

"…The Nothing" Sakura said, staring at the perfect mirror image of the most powerful card in her possession, once known as The Nothing, a card capable of basically erasing what she wanted without resistance, then turned into The Hope when The Love, her personal, and so far, only original card had fused with The Nothing, after all, what it's more powerful than nothingness? The certainty that there it's hope at the end of the tunnel.

"Yes, Palomina was her name, when she was bored she used to play with a deck of tarot cards and make mock reads of Clow's future with him present, he would always laugh at her outrageous telling…he didn't laugh a lot when a watermelon met his head and broke an arm the next day she predicted it would happen" Yelan said.

"A…water…how…a watermelon?" Sakura asked with a great degree of shock.

"It was summer and mix that with some sake and two big guys throwing things at each other" was the only explanation Yelan provided.

"Anyway, it was on his way to recovery that he got inspired, he had toyed with the idea of creating powerful artifacts capable of some degree of sentiency, binded to the elements, but so far hadn't found a way to easily transport them, or summon them, enter Palomina and the cards" Yelan said.

"So…the Clow cards…were born out of a concussion made by a watermelon, an arm fracture and a sloppy made prediction that turned to be true?" Yelan nodded at Sakura's question.

Sakura's laughter echoed all over the house, for five minutes straight.

At first Yelan thought it was cute, so did The Light and The Dark when they appeared, drawn by the sound of Sakura's outrageous laughter, then it got lightly annoying, then it got annoying when she took deep breaths, looked at the summoned cards, and started to laugh again, harder than before.

"**Can I hit her?" **The Light asked.

"**No, she is our mistress"** The Dark reminded, although she seemed temped to do it, regardless of the consequences of hitting a laughing Rayearth on the back of her head.

After Sakura calmed down, Yelan continued with her tale, but the fact Sakura seemed to have a big, mischievous smile on her face for what she had learned, didn't help a lot in erasing the scowl on the faces of Yelan and the elemental cards.

"IN any case, in ten years Clow Reed created in sequence the Clow cards, starting with The Nothing, followed by The Light and Dark, following the philosophy that first there was nothing, then light and darkness, after them he created the first elemental cards, The Watery, The Firey, The Earthy and The Windy, Then bonded these cards first to Kerberos and Yue, The Dark, The Watery and The Windy would be under Yue, giving him most of his power, while The Light, The Firey and The Earthy would be under Keroberos, granting him most of his powers, reason why both of them regained their full powers at the same time when you sealed The Light and The Dark" Yelan explained.

"I know that, half of the cards are under Kero-chan's care, while the other cards are under Yue-san's eyes, then the other cards, that are bonded to the four elemental cards would fall under their care, only The Hope remains as a card that it's truly mine" Sakura said, "Still I can't see the connection of Clow, Palomina and The Pact" she added.

"That's why when the cards were finished, The Pact had no idea about them, they found about the cards when Palomina was forty-five years old, while Clow as sixty-eight, he had become the godfather of two of her daughters, and Palomina had become Clow's confidant, even to the point being the person who would know of his dreams about his successor, you" Yelan said.

"Also Palomina was the only know living witness of the creation of the cards, let me tell you this Sakura, the creation of the cards is basically in your genes, when you created The Love it felt like a natural thing to you, like you had done it before, that's because Clow not only gave you his cards and power in the form of his transformed staff, but the moment you touched it, information about how to create the cards were imprinted in your very being, you, without knowing, hold one of the greatest secrets of this world, how to create sentient being bonded to the elemental forces and that are capable of becoming stronger with use" Yelan added, much to Sakura's utter shock.

"I think that this skill will be passed to your children when the time it's right, after all Clow only dreamed of one successor, after all he never had children, you will have children unlike him, and the line of succession will be translated to them" Yelan explained, this time making Sakura blush, and with reason, after all Sakura had imagined marriage with Syaoran, something that would cement not only Sakura's claim as the legitimate successor of the cards, but also cement the Li's place among the strongest magical families.

Politics, how she hated thee, but that's how things work sometimes, that this had happened without any kind of plan whatsoever was the thing that made many magical families around the world to be really angry at her for her luck after finding that her son was dating the most powerful being in the world.

"While Clow knew how to create the cards by practice, Palomina had seen the creation first-hand, if she wanted it she could have guided any wizard to do so, but she didn't, she swore she would never reveal the secret of the creation of the Clow cards to no one…a promise she carried to her grave" Sakura there perked up, Yelan noted how Sakura's whole demeanor changed, gone was the playful girl, or the troubled child looking for answers.

Yelan there was staring at Sakura the Rayearth, Sakura the warrior, Sakura who could punch you right down to the core of the planet and stomp a city down, Sakura, one of the most powerful living beings in the universe, including her fellow rayearths.

"The details are sketchy at best, no one knows how The Pact got wind of the Clow Cards and who was the only living person capable of telling them how to be created, we just know that Palomina was kidnapped, tortured and then died thanks to the compounded wounds on her body…some Pact members were more scared of her than her of them, rumor has it that she didn't uttered a single sound as she was tortured, not even a whimper, and that scared even the strongest of tortures, she carried her promise, she took the secret of the cards creation to the grave, and there is how Clow got involved with The pact" Yelan said.

"You see Clow cared for Palomina, when he found out about her kidnapping he tore the town and adjacent towns apart looking for her, when he found her…something inside him died, it's a good thing that you met him prior to this thanks to The Return, the man he became later was…cold" Yelan whispered.

"He personally led the hunt against The Pact over Japan, feudal lords, Samurai and Ninja clans rallied over him and several wizards as well, ten years later The Pact was all but eradicated of these lands, no survivors, not even one" Sakura didn't seemed affected by the news, she looked, indifferent Yelan noted.

"By that time he was already showing signs of decline, he wasn't no longer a young man, and the campaign zapped the rest of his health, the last ten years of his life he passed them confined on his home with Kero and Yue as company, Palomina's family, her husband specially kept regular visits to Clow, her daughters did so, to an extent, as they had married to Feudal lords as well, their visits were rare compared to Palomina's husband, a blacksmith of one of the lords who aided Clow in his campaign against The Pact"

"It would be in Clow's deathbed that Palomina's family, all of them would come to him, they heard him speak of his successor, every lord did, so Palomina's family swore that they would protect the future heir of Clow Reed, to prevent the fate Palomina had suffered, several wizards and enchanters joined them, thus the Order of Palomina was born" Yelan finished.

"And for the last centuries they have been tangled in a secret war with The Pact, waiting for my appereance" Sakura summarized.

"Yes, you understand that the fact not only the heir of one of the most powerful wizards of our times has appeared, but also that heir is in fact the mythical Rayearth of earth, directly tied to the royal succession line in Crystalia hasn't gone unnoticed by several magical families and organizations in the world, several organizations tied to the council had sent members to be your shadows, and to perhaps gain some favor with you, after all politics are now tied with dealing all over the world" Sakura groaned in frustration.

"Has any of them will try to attack me?"

"Oh goodness no" Yelan covered her mouth with her hand, a small giggle escaping her lips, "No one in the council is stupid enough to try an anger a Rayearth, let alone one that wields the Clow cards, the reputation of the knights as forces of nature is well deserved, no one in the council wants to make an enemy of someone who can sink a city with a stomp of her feet, well there it's the Pact but their sanity has always been in question" Yelan said, making Sakura and the cards present to giggle.

"Your new…shadows are perhaps the most mind-leveled I know off, they are there to make sure you don't end up in The Pact's clutches, with standing orders to eliminate The Pact members if found, you might not know it, but the war Of Clow Reed against The Pact was really bloody"

"I don't need to know that, I can imagine as much" Yelan noted that Sakura had the look of someone who knew about man and vengeance.

"I hope that satiated your thirst for knowledge" Sakura nodded at that, "Now if you don't mind, could you satiate mine?"

"How so?" Sakura asked, then blinked, then slightly smiled, a smile that reminded Yelan to that of a grinding fox.

"OH, you want to know about the other rayearths"

"_Damn she is scary when she smiles like that, even more when she reads your intentions like an open book"_ Yelan thought with some apprehension.

"Yes, I would like to know about them, at least if they are still among the living" Yelan said, knowing full well that while Rayearth were the strongest of the universe, they were still mortals.

"Well, Gaia has been silent this week; I think she is communicating with the other guardians"

"Anima, Draconax and Fira" Yelan supplied.

"That's them, anyway she told me that right now there are two truly active Rayearth knights, the Rayearth of wind, which believe it or not, is a ninja, a freaking ninja, and me" Sakura said, Yelan had to blink, not because Sakura had said that two rayearths were truly active, as in actually in their worlds and fighting, but because one of the active rayearths was a ninja.

As a child she always had a fixation with ninjas, the mysterious assassins of the night, she found them…awesome.

"The one of wind is on his home world, basically tearing bad guys apart with his powers, or headbutting them to oblivion…or dropping thunders or hurricanes on their heads, he is not picky Gaia said, not subtle"

"Dropping hurricanes on someone's head is hardly subtle, effective but not subtle" Yelan agreed.

"You know about me, Rayearth of earth and current mistress of cards, we are the only truly active knights, the other two, the knight of fire and knight of water just…dropped out of the grid after some devastating battles" Sakura admitted.

"The knight of water is in on some sort of nexus healing his wounds and letting some…robots in his bloodstream heal the rest and stabilize his…ghost half, yes I know it's weird, apparently he is a local ghost hunter who his half human half ghost, and ended up fighting some sort of crystalian enemy know as King Nothing" Yelan there hid her shock at that news, the legend of King Nothing was well know here, even more than the one of the knights of Crystalia.

"The knight of fire…a…a…shinigami" Yelan blinked, now that was new, she didn't knew spirits, let alone a death god could become knights, "Also fell of the grid after destroying something called 'The Linchpin' Gaia assures me I will met them all at the end of the six months, but the fact two of them are separated of their worlds, one of them healing of very serious wounds and the other travelling in some sort of time tube that makes him think he travelled for five minutes but instead travelled for months doesn't…makes me feel fine" Sakura admitted.

"It's to be expected, and it doesn't make ME feel less better either, rayearths are formidable forces of nature, you are an example of that, but they are still mortal, I can only assume that since the other two rayearths have finished whatever business they had in their worlds and had now turned to rest, finishing it right before the timeline, those battles had to be so devastating if they need months to recover, knights usually require a week or less to recover from wounds inflicted to them, their enemies…they were nothing to sneer at" Yelan said, Sakura of course knew this, she was an example of what to expect in terms of powers to the other knights.

Still it made her equally uncomfortable to know that two knights were out of combat, one of them due to really severe wounds, wounds she knew from mouth of Gaia herself, was still recovering.

"I'm starting to think the knight of wind has it easy, at least in his world he knows who are his enemies" Yelan rose an eyebrow at that assumption of Sakura.

"And you don't?" she asked.

"Of course I don't know who are really my enemies" Yelan actually blinked at Sakura's words.

"You said it yourself, The Pact is everywhere, and so it's these…other groups, who are you to tell me these people can be trusted? For all I know they are just waiting for me to be weakened by my constant fights with The Pact and try to get the cards to themselves, or capture and brainwash me" Sakura explained.

"Sakura…do you know how crazy that sounds?" Yelan said with a small laugh.

"Is it?" Sakura questioned, "Before I had an image of Clow Reed as a friendly, if lazy, wizard, who had untold power and used it for nothing but good, but now I know better, nothing is what it seems" Sakura said as she began to walk away.

"Thanks for the talk, next time let's make sure we are truly alone to talk more seriously" she added as she slammed her fist to one of the walls, making the house shake, Yelan looked at Sakura with some amount of shock, the house, while not magical like her former home in China, had been long enough in Tomoeda to permeate itself with the magic saturating the city, and that had allowed her to anchor several spells to make the house resistant to everything.

Well, almost everything, apparently there wasn't a spell powerful enough to counter the pure raw power of a Rayearth knight, especially one like Sakura, it was a wonder why the house hasn't fell over her head yet, EVEN MORE Yelan was able to see ripples of magical energy, the magical energy in the house ripple with the blow, the fact Sakura was able to do this with just her raw strength alone was…frightening.

As Sakura left, surely to seek council from someone not affiliated with magic organizations, like her cousin Tomoyo, or perhaps Kero, Yelan was painfully aware that several members of the organizations send to keep an eye on Sakura and keep her safe had heard everything, and felt everything.

They knew Sakura was powerful, even before she became a Rayearth, now however things were different, her enemy stood no chance against her, they just needed to give her a reason to let loose her power over them.

No one was stupid enough to give a Rayearth knight a reason to hate them, let alone to beat the shit out of them.

That didn't mean there wasn't someone willing to try that stupidity that might destroy the world as they know it.

* * *

"…And there's that" Sakura finished, looking right now at the only person capable of understanding her position right now.

"**You are in a very difficult position"**

Gaia herself, after all who else could understand this complicated moment but a being who had lived long enough to see this kind of thing and see a solution to it.

"Complicated is a nice way of saying it Gaia" Sakura said, slightly kicking a rock around her mindscape, the cliff edging around a forest below, a forest that didn't seemed to end at all, while in the edges she could see a massive volcano floating in mid-air, and three massive colored pillars standing proudly at the distance, nearly reaching beyond the sky.

"Try a pain in the butt, I'm stuck between a flaming rock wall and a freaking wall of swords with no way to tell what it's going to help me the most" Sakura snapped sadly.

Sakura could feel the ethereal form of Gaia, the human looking form of Gaia, place a hand on her shoulder, it was a comforting feeling, to know she had someone, besides her boyfriend, her dad, her cousin, and her guardians, who could turn for support, it helped also that her current support knew more about the trials and tribulations she was passing on now.

"**Believe me, of all the current knights, you are the one with less problems" **Gaia spoke, making Sakura actually blink.

"How this can't be bigger compare to what they are facing?" she wondered.

"**Between an organization trying to extract the very life out of you and is formed of the most depraved and powerful individuals in his world and shadow politics, between a madman with hunger of revenge and equal power to yours and a rouge government branch shadow ops and a whole species of paranormal entities, and between an organization formed by mere deaths gods with a grudge to last a millennia, cannibalistic beings, a man with delusions of godhood and a shadow army waiting the moment to strike, you are the less burdened" **Gaia spoke, making Sakura blink, when she put it that way, she was getting off lightly.

"Yet that doesn't mean my problem is not without care, right?" Sakura stated.

"**Indeed, The Pact, while insignificant compared to the enemies of your Rayearth compatriots can truly develop into a real problem if not dealt with now, like a cancer, it starts small, but without treatment it will grow and corrupt the healthy cells, eventually endangering the host"**

Sakura took this information in stride, her eyes focused on the horizon, especially on the pillars, and how the sky…moved.

"I got kidnapped…again" Sakura all but hissed, her eyes narrowing at this revelation, if something she had learned of her mindscape was that it was tied, not only to her body, but to her surroundings as well, if she, by some reason, got moved, the sky would move accordingly to this movement, the reason of course she summarized that she got kidnapped was because after leaving Yelan she headed straight to home, kissed her dad on the cheek, went to her room and went to bed.

Someone had moved her of bed, and was currently moving at great speed, if the clouds movements were anything to go by.

"**They are persistent I'll give them that…yet stupid, they don't realize that they are poking a sleeping tiger with a stick" **Gaia spoke.

"One of them thinks that the Clow Cards are in fact corrupting me, or so Akane said, claimed she was trying to save me from this" Sakura snorted at that, something Gaia mimicked.

"**Corrupting you? Please those cards the most benign artifacts I have ever seen, maybe she thinks absolute power corrupts absolutely, it does…if you let it" **Gaia spoke, making Sakura slightly smile.

"Yeah, it can't do nothing if you fight it…now to make sure they don't do nothing while I'm here" Sakura said, her body slowly vanishing.

"**Just remember…do like the Rayearth of wind" **Gaia counseled.

"Uh…kick butts, take names and eat ramen?"

"…**no, fight, win and by all that it's divine don't get hit by any technique that it's purple colored, it is usually bad"** Gaia added with some annoyance as she saw Sakura vanish completely.

Of the four Rayearth potentials, she had to get the one who got influenced so easily, why the shinigami couldn't be born a girl and become a Rayearth? Oh yeah, because a girl with orange hair, taller than anyone else, kicking ass, taking names and chopping hollows with a big butcher sword is not exactly a nice image, especially if that so said girl turns to be the next in line for being queen.

* * *

"Move it people, the faster we have this barrier up the sooner we can finish and go home!"

"You try to create a tenth level barrier in the span of five minutes and then we'll see how you do, this thing is complicated, a mistake and we all will have to be scraped of the walls"

Akane actually growled at the three enchanters around Sakura, then shook her head.

Taking Sakura had been awfully easy, all things considering, kidnapping a Rayearth was like trying to stick your head on the open mind of a crocodile and hope nothing stimulates the oversensitive mouth that will crush your head like a grape.

The only reason they were able to snatch her away of her home was for the lack of security, meaning wards around the house than can sense ill intent on anyone entering and fry anyone trying to break in after-hours, her father and guardian being on the first floor eating and Sakura herself apparently on some sort of sleep/meditation, reason why no one ended up on her roof like a bizarre piñata like Sonya.

Now that was an interesting tale, Sonya herself had kidnapped Sakura's family, and had arrogantly waited for Sakura in her room, never realizing that Sakura herself had become a Rayearth, in fact no one knew, but had felt the incredible shift within the ether, then next thing she knows is that someone had put Sonya as a roof decoration, had devastated Isaac's branch on Tomoeda on the very first night of her capture, not to say that she had, without knowing, declared war on The Pact as a whole.

Isaac and his men were still recovering from the rampage of 'Sakura The Pillar' as someone had wrongly nicknamed her, or it appear to be a wrong nickname, to her it wasn't.

To her, Sakura was in fact a pillar, a pillar in which the other rayearths would eventually lean on for support, or perhaps lend their own support to, but in the end she was the main support, without her the others wouldn't have a chance.

She felt hesitant to do this, but a Rayearth with the Clow Cards was a danger in itself, who knew what would happen if the other knights actually got powers of their own besides their Rayearth fueled powers, surely nothing good that was certain.

She of course was following orders of the high master, the cards contained such raw power that would eventually fuel it to its max, even more considering they got upgraded with Rayearth like magic.

There she was hesitant once more, Rayearth magic, meaning ancient elemental magic that was linked to the creation of everything alive in the universe was to be treated carefully, less you piss an ancient entity off and you end off less than a pile of ashes and your soul torn asunder and smeared all over the creation.

Yet there were this eggheads who assured her that nothing would happen, they had casted a powerful sleeping charm on Sakura, keeping her on her sleep like state they found her, just to make things easier.

The barrier was just in case, and just in case Sakura woke up and decided to make an encore on what she did to Isaac and his division.

"How long until the shield is ready?" Akane asked to one of the enchanters near her.

"Five minutes if we do it right, two if we rush it and want to die in the energy backlash" was the immediate answer, Akane instantly displayed her whole hand, giving them a five minute time limit, she had seen once the backlash of an ill made shield barrier, and that had been a low level barrier, this one was the strongest made, after all the sheer raw strength of Sakura was enough to warrant such barrier, and that was if she wasn't even trying, or angry at all.

"How the circle?" she asked.

"It's ready, but we should wait until the barrier is ready, we don't want to repeat what happened to Isaac and his team" the man who spoke to her suddenly shivered, like remembering something repressed and horrible.

"A guy who was there told me that…that girl basically tore them apart, worse…her eyes…her eyes…he said to not look her in the eyes, less you want to see your life flash in front of you"

Akane frowned at that, lore and stories about the Crystalia finest was limited, only small facts about their power, the fact they wielded indestructible weapons and armors, and their stare could easily freeze charging armies dead on their tracks.

She had heard the same rumors about Sakura and her stare, but she had also heard the rumor about her being able to assert her will at any time she wanted, basically enforcing herself to whoever defied her, in short, anyone caught would feel like if the world's gravity had multiplied to a level no one expected, the air was sucked from out your lungs directly and all around you and the immediate feeling of god itself was pressing you to the ground with his pinky finger was the only accurate description of this.

Akane didn't want to find if the rumors were in fact true, at all, for the sake of the plan, this had to happen, removing Sakura of the ether, of the cards was the only option-

"Holy crap she is awakening!"

That sole scream, that someone said 'awakening' brought instant panic to everyone, and within reason, Sakura was waking up.

The Rayearth was waking up.

It was like seeing a volcano erupt, it was mesmerizing, and damn scary as hell.

Sakura woke up with a jolt, not groggily, standing rigid in an instant an ramming her fist against the invisible wall around her, the resulting force behind the punch caused the shield to shatter it, followed by the explosive backlash that send every single person on the other end of the barrier flying away.

"Oh dammit" Sakura moaned as she rubbed her right hand, now red and letting some steam out, "That…hurt" she said, after some thought, "That hurt" she added quickly.

She had got shot in the head by that girl, she had crashed someone on a wall and rubble had fallen over her, she had slammed her feet on the ground with sufficient strength to snap the bones of her feet, but never she had felt pain, she had never got bruised, and despite the fact she got a red spot where that needle size bullet had hit him, but that had annoyed her more than hurt her.

This was different, it had hurt, punching that shield had hurt, the energy travelling on the shield exploding on her knuckles had hurt her, her hand was numb now, steam slowly receding, the effects vanishing as soon as it had come.

Yet something had hurt her, and that scared her, The Pact had magic that could hurt her.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Sakura focused on those in front of her, the fallen members of The Pact, they had kidnapped her again, just to get the cards, like if they were a prize to be claimed, they weren't.

Looking around, Sakura instantly spotted her current two less favorite people of the month, Akane and that crazy girl that ended as a piñata and who she had crushed her USB and she didn't want to learn her name at all because she hurt her family.

The second was of no importance, if something Sakura had learned on her time as a Rayearth and under Yelan's tutelage, meaning learning more about her magical roots and harnessing her magical power to not become too dependent of her Rayearth powers, she had learned something really important, her ability to sense people, objects, anything was limited if it was touching solid ground, she could feel the ocean, to an extend, the waves of course, but not the fishes within because they weren't directly touching the ground, but anything floating, flying or otherwise jumping really high was out of her reach…unless it was magical.

If it was magical, and it was flying, Sakura could easily detect it, Yelan had called her a sensor, able to feel the barest vibrations on the ground and pinpoint with machine like accuracy the location of such vibration, and if the magical was in the air, Sakura could also detect it, provided than the object or being was magical, if not it would be like her trying to guess if they had tossed her a rock or a knife, while on her back.

This wasn't the case, instantly Sakura ducked, avoiding the purple beam that tore the wall in front of her, and half-burying some of the fallen members of The Pact along with rocks and whatnot.

Turning around, Sakura eyes slightly widened, then she narrowed them, "You" she hissed, staring at the reason she was hunted now, the reason her family was in danger.

"I…Isaac" Sakura heard Akane gasp, so he had a name, sure didn't beat calling him buttface.

"What…are you…doing here?" she gasped, slowly rolling to her chest and trying to stand up, "This is…my…operation…not…yours" Akane rasped out.

"I'm here to make sure this work gets done" he said, Sakura noted how in his right hand he held some sort of charm, it looked like four wings attacked one to other in a circular pattern, to her honest opinion it looked more like a square.

"You…failed already" Akane reminded as she slowly stood up, Sakura could see how she tried to stand on her own feet, but was near impossible by the amount of pain she was trough, magic blasts, while do not affect the body visually, can cause quite a mess internally, as right now, Akane felt how her bones were ready to snap, her nerves were blazing in fire, her stomach was about to blow, her kidneys felt like two big rocks inside of her, her brain felt like mush, and her heart wanted to come out of her ribcage ala _Alien_.

Akane was even surprised of herself, trying to stand on her own, let alone talk.

"You're not here for that" Sakura stated, summoning Nova and flicking it around, Akane had the slight satisfaction of seeing Isaac tense up upon seeing Nova, not that she could blame him, the appereance of a Rayearth weapon, in the hands of a Rayearth tend to be the prelude of something bad, for the opponent, not the knight.

Isaac had felt that first hand.

"You're just for revenge…after all a little girl did beat you and your cronies" Sakura said with a smirk, "So don't say that it's about the cards, because it isn't" she added.

Isaac, to his credit, didn't rise to the bait, instead he settled on glaring her hatefully.

"And don't glare at me like that, you know it's the truth, no matter what you do, I will win" Sakura had to duck away after saying that, after Isaac shot another purple beam to her.

"Enough Kinomoto, I am done with this petty game, you will die, and I will deliver you to oblivion" Isaac said calmly, yet Sakura could sense some edges of madness on his tone of voice.

Readying Nova up, Sakura observed her opponent and her surroundings the area was devastated by the backlash of the barrier explosion, making the whole place unstable, meaning that most of her powers were useless unless she wanted to bury herself and the rest of her enemies on the remains of the house, the place looked more like an abandoned mansion than anything else, so she knew she was close to a residential area.

"_Okay Sakura…time to see if Nova has some properties of Clow's old staff"_

Isaac instantly tensed when Sakura whipped her left hand, one of the cards appearing in her hand, "Thanks for being my new test dummy" was all she said as she threw the card in front of her, this one stopping in mid-air and spinning madly, finally stopping and facing her, then she brought the tip of Nova to the card.

"The Watery!"

Isaac eyes widened when the card began to affect the Rayearth weapon, he knew than before, Sakura's old staff was the only means, besides pre sheer will, to manifest the powers of the cards once captured, but most people had assumed that once the Rayearth weapon had fused with Sakura's old staff, thus forming Nova, that feature had died out as it appeared that with the upgrade of the cards came the ability to unleash their power without the need of a sealing staff.

It appeared they were wrong.

Immediately the card fragmented into light strings that attached to the staff, enveloping fully, giving it an ethereal glow, then the weapon began to change, much to Isaac's shock.

Right where Sakura was holding it, the staff changed, becoming a black leathery grip that was more than fitting for the rest of the body of the now transformed staff, as a segmented blade like whip began to form instead of the rigid staff, each triangle like blade joined by a thin, glowing thread, the tip of this whip like weapon becoming a trident like end, all while each part of the weapon was painted in a metallic cobalt blue.

Sakura observed the weapon for some time, then her gaze turned to Isaac, "I haven't paid you back for all what you did to my family, have I not?" she asked, then suddenly blurred out of sight, much to Isaac's shock.

"_She used The Dash when she summoned The Watery to her hands!"_ he thought in panic, then brought the charm on his hand to his chest, instantly his body gained a purple outline, then he jumped away with some difficulty as a part of the floor he was in was simply serrated, the blue like teeth of the whip-sword meeting the ground, Sakura not far behind.

"Let me pay you all for your _kind_ hospitality" she hissed, blurring away out of sight, Isaac bit a curse as she side-jumped avoiding Sakura above him, spinning like a deranged top of doom that carved a way onto the wooden floor with practical ease and raising dust and splinters everywhere.

All while Akane watched in shock, not at the battle, but at the events before the battle.

"_That…that's impossible, the cards are not Sakura's own creation, they shouldn't be compatible with that staff!"_ she thought with shock, trying to stand up, but being unable to do so, the pain was still there, yet her mind was working a thousand miles a second trying to process the events in front of her.

"_Unless…no…she made the staff AND the cards truly hers, but her power is not that great…unless…unless…a suppressor, placed by Clow when she released the cards the first time and destroyed when she…he knew, he knew!" _Akane thought with anger.

All this time, The Pact had, unaware, played under Clow Reed masterful, almost two hundred years old plot to prepare Sakura against them.

He had seen, in his last moments, not only Sakura as his successor…but as the knight of earth.

"Isaac…RUN!" Akane screamed, slightly catching the attention of so said man, not enough for him to get struck by another sweep of Sakura's new weapon, still enough for him to lose the left sleeve of his clothes.

"We can't win…Clow played with us, he knew, he always knew how things would play out! We have to regroup…Aži Dahāka, we have to wake it!" she screamed finally standing up, much to the shock of Isaac, of her standing up or what she said Sakura didn't know.

"You…Dahāka? But it will take…" Isaac had little time to even answer before Akane fired a red jet stream of energy to one of the walls, instantly the house around them began to groan, Sakura caught up with her strategy quite fast, and stared angrily at her.

"Are you crazy? There are people still inside!" Sakura screamed.

"They knew the risks, pacifying you is far more important than their lives" Akane stated coldly, shocking Sakura, and to a lesser extend Isaac itself.

"If we can't get the cards, we will make sure no one can gain you at all…Clow will not win this time, he won't deny us this time!" Akane said, turning her hand to Sakura and the letting a lance of red energy at Sakura.

The mistress of the card did the only thing she thought at the moment, she raised her left hand and received the lance of energy full force.

Sakura gritted her teeth and brought all her weight forward as she was slowly dragged backwards by the lance of energy, the attack of course lost power after some seconds, losing brightness and power, eventually the attack ended, and so did Sakura's hand, glove and fingers included, much to Akane's shock.

"_No…it can't be, the lance of Longinus should have burned her hand clean, leave nothing, not even bone, but…there it is, her hand, her glove…"_ Akane thought, the color of her face slowly being drained by the crude realization that not even her most powerful attack she had performed just seconds ago was enough to wound Sakura.

"…What are you?" Akane asked, aghast and pale, Isaac wondered the same, but in silence.

Sakura by her part simply flexed her left hand, slightly running it over her pants and removing any kind of dirt that might had attached to it during the attack.

"I'm a Rayearth" was all she said as she lunged at them.

* * *

"The implications are startling"

"Honestly I expected no less, after all Clow Reed was always one step ahead of us"

"Indeed, it is not farfetched to think he knew how the current events would unfold"

"Still, now we know what he expected, we can prepare accordingly"

"Don't be naïve woman, you really think you can plan against a Rayearth knight, they are forces of nature, and they can't be stopped by anything else but another force of nature"

"Indeed, we could release the Dahāka…but it would only stall her momentarily, and it will take time to do so"

"Agreed, her speed of growth is…astonishing, but it is tied to combat, if she trains her skills there won't be a problem, however if combat is involved…then we have a true prodigy of combat, a savant of warfare"

"Pity, to a little, innocent girl like her to be given the very tools of war itself, a waste"

"Do I detect jealousy? You really envy a girl for having the power of the elements?"

"YES!"

"Enough! We have much more pressing things to worry about, prepare the Dahāka for release, augment it if needed, we have to stall Kinomoto as much as possible, the plan cannot be delayed any more than it is, UN is already sending their dogs, rumors are already circulating, the focusing stone we left was finally found to be a fake, they know we have it"

"Inconsequential, the plan was already in motion, even before she became a knight, it will be completed, even if she is in between us, nothing can stop us now"

"Maybe she can't, but it is plausible that interference can happen, Kinomoto becoming a Rayearth and basically evolving the cards and sealing wand is one such an example"

"A Deus Ex Machina, please, that only happens in TV and literature"

"UH, I hate to point this out but a Rayearth being selected at this point in our plan is kinda of a Deus Ex Machina"

"Shut up" at least eight voices choired.

"Even if it happens, it will be already too late to do anything but to watch…how are Akane and Isaac?"

"Considering they went against a Rayearth knight, they are lucky"

"To be alive?"

"To have their bone still inside them, still we had to pull some very broken bones out, less they tore an important vein or punctured an organ, she was, if nothing, too…methodical, she wanted them out of the picture"

"…She wanted them out and as message"

"Yes, stay out of my way, I can easily do this to you too"

"…prepare the Dahāka for augmentation, all of them, extreme if needed, in three months, I want Sakura Kinomoto dead"

* * *

**_there you have it people, another chapter done and gone, this time however there won't be a glossary of new words like last time, this will persist on the next two chapters, but will carry on on the fifth and final book of the saga, which I have name, finally._**

**_Rayearth Knights: Universe at War, which is basically self-explanatory, think of this, with more chapters, more boom, more battles, a massive crossover in the likes of Kingdom Hearts, but with no Disney magic in it, there will be death, blood, explosions, some nudity and curse words, limited of course, this is staying as a T rating story, some satisfactory endings and fan delivery to things i think should have been but never were._**

**_where it be published, I'm still haveing some thoughts, putting it on the X-over section, on Misc seems the logical conclusion, but then again this a story with Sakura as a protagonist, with several anime, cartoon and game characters in it as well, well know to us, not so well know to those who publish and read in the X-over section over in Misc, so my second option is on the card captor-naruto crossover section, to that if you can help me diceide it would be great, as you will be guys reading it._**

**_well, that's that, remember that my poll will be still active until the very last chapter of Sakura The Pillar, 'Epilogue' is published, revealing the characters or the lack of them, depending on your votes._**

**_so Hypn0s bids you all good night (it's night here on Colombia) be well friends._**


End file.
